





























































































































































































































































































































Class 6 Vfca o 
Rnnlc ‘ A I 
r>np\TTght N ° / 7 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 









( 




THE 

OXFORD CONFERENCE 


(Official Report) 























































































































































YV.i C'Vv. f ^>VWVV4.v vA^t 

<vwjt j (jx » \ ^(‘? *1 ^ 

THE 

OXFORD CONFERENCE 

(Official Report) 

J. H. OLDHAM 



Willett, Clark & Company 

CHICAGO NEW YORK 


1937 


v t\\Vito 

Copyright 1937 by 
WILLETT, CLARK & COMPANY 


Manufactured in The U. S. A. by The Plimpton Press 
Norwood, Mass.-La Porte, Ind. 


English edition published by 
George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 


©ci A 


115851 

RPR 11 « 38 



CONTENTS 


Preface to the American Edition vii 

Introduction, by J. H. Oldham i 

A Message from the Oxford Conference to the 
Christian Churches 45 

THE REPORTS OF THE SECTIONS OF THE 
CONFERENCE 

I. Report of the Section on Church and Commu¬ 
nity 55 

II. Report of the Section on Church and State 65 

III. Report of the Section on Church, Community 

and State in Relation to the Economic Order 75 

IV. Report of the Section on Church, Community 

and State in Relation to Education 113 

V. Report of the Section on the Universal Church 

and the World of Nations 151 

Additional Report of the Section on Church 
and Community 172 

Additional Report of the Section on Church 
and State 224 


V 


vi 

Contents 



APPENDICES 


A. 

Message to the German Evangelical Church 

259 

B. 

Report of the Committee of Thirty-Five 

261 

C. 

Program of the Conference 

268 

D. 

Officers of the Conference 

275 

E. 

Churches Represented at the Conference 

277 

F. 

List of Delegates 

283 


PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION 


mericans are accustomed to being in the presence of 



s\ many nationalities, for their country is itself the result 
of a great fusion of peoples. Yet even for an American 
from polyglot New York it is an unforgettable experience 
to be for weeks part of an intimate Christian fellowship in 
which forty-five nations are represented. And when one 
worships twice a day with that varied and colorful company 
in a church whose site had been used for Christian worship 
for five hundred years before there was any Protestant 
church one begins to perceive anew why even Protestants 
still say: “ I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.” 

In the generic sense Oxford was catholic — meaning of 
course universal, all-inclusive, inter-racial, supra-national. 
A better word, less subject perhaps to misunderstanding, is 
the one so frequently applied: Oxford was ecumenical. 
That old word from the Greek was reborn and brought 
back into circulation, along with the fundamental idea for 
which it stood in the early Christian centuries — the idea 
of the whole household of faith. 

The Oxford Conference on Church, Community and 
State (by community Europeans mean, of course, the social 
order) was almost literally ecumenical, representative of 
the whole household of non-Roman Christianity. It was 
inclusive at a time when terrific forces are tearing the hu¬ 
man family apart. It drew the world together when hate 
and fear are splitting it up. It thought, and spoke, and wor¬ 
shiped, and acted together; not in the interest of any one 
part of the church, but for the sake of the whole church 
throughout the world. 


viii Preface to the American Edition 

Men and women went there thinking of the churches and 
came away talking and thinking about the Church: in¬ 
visible, eternal, spiritual — more real than the broken 
ranks of those who call themselves Christians and forget, 
when they use the word, that there can be only one family 
of the Lord, however many earthly homes the family may 
inhabit. 

But concern for the church at Oxford did not take the 
form of mutual consultation on preserving the life of the 
church in a time of storm and stress. There was manifested 
much more prominently a vital concern for the moral and 
spiritual health of the world. One might have expected 
just the opposite. The cry was not: “To the cyclone cellars 
to save yourselves! ” Rather it was: “ Stand forth unitedly 
and speak unto the people that they go forward! ” Such 
unity as could be found was sought in order that the world 
might believe and be saved from its own folly and madness. 

In one sense — and that a very important one — the Ox¬ 
ford Conference spoke for itself. The chapters of this book, 
which was published in England under the title, The 
Churches Survey Their Task, reflect as accurately as may 
be what it had to say. In another sense, the process of dis¬ 
cussion in a company gathered from all the world involved 
constantly the problem of interpretation — not only of 
language but also of psychology and of ideas. So in ap¬ 
proaching the written reports of what the delegates did and 
particularly of what they said, there is need for more than 
the ordinary amount of awareness of what such linguistic 
and psychological differences imply. 

For instance, in connection with one of the reports herein 
presented, a prominent American delegate was asked to 
prepare a certain vitally important section. When he had 
completed his work he read it to a group of his associates. 
Some of them were British, some were from the continent 


Preface to the American Edition ix 

of Europe, some were from Asia. All understood and used 
the “ English ” language. But when each in turn explained 
what the passage in question seemed to him to mean, it be¬ 
came quite painfully apparent that differences in idiom, 
in the usage of individual words, and above all in psycho¬ 
logical approach resulted in very marked divergence of 
interpretation. 

What the experience at the Tower of Babel meant for the 
world of men becomes clearer to anyone contemplating 
such a problem as the one here involved. In a way, there¬ 
fore, it is inevitable that this report should be read in senses 
other than those intended by the conference which issues it. 
There are, however, certain safeguards which may be em¬ 
ployed by those who bring to their study of these findings 
and recommendations an awareness of the fundamental 
difficulties certain to be encountered. 

i 

The first thing to be kept in mind is that the Oxford Con¬ 
ference definitely represented the whole world, although 
there was more Anglo-American influence in evidence than 
Asian or even European. This was not intended, but it 
was perhaps inevitable, for a greater number of delegates 
came from the English-speaking branches of the Christian 
church than from any other single branch. The attempt 
to face problems in the light of world experience rather 
than from the point of view of a single nation or people 
meant that certain adjustments and accommodations had 
to be made, rather than that the finer shades of meaning — 
from the point of view of any one nation or culture — 
should be brought out. 

Two particularly good illustrations are to be found in 
connection with community and race. The very title, in 
its British form, of the conference — Church, Community 


x Preface to the American Edition 

and State — is misleading to an American if he does not 
know that the word “ community/* as employed in Eng¬ 
land, has a meaning almost entirely different from what it 
has in America. The British mean — and the French so 
translate the term — society in the sense of the social order, 
with its racial, cultural, legal, economic, and national fea¬ 
tures. The Germans translate the term with the rather 
awkward word “ Volk ” but in so doing they lift the ele¬ 
ment of race into the primary place and think of it as the 
major characteristic of community. With Americans and 
with Britons this element is present but only as one among 
many. When we Americans speak in ordinary conversa¬ 
tion of a “ community of interest ” binding our people to¬ 
gether, we are using the word somewhat in the British 
sense, but not at all necessarily in the German sense. 

It does no good to try to escape these differences. They 
simply have to be faced, and the best possible effort must 
be made to find ways of dealing with what is common to us 
all in an idea even if we have no common language to con¬ 
vey it unerringly. 


ii 

It must also be remembered that there has been no at¬ 
tempt to edit all the declarations of the conference from 
one point of view, theological or philosophical. As one 
reads the various sectional statements he will find that some 
are based upon one and some upon another view of, for 
example, the nature of the church. Hence the differences 
which were present are not slurred over; they come out in 
the reports much as they did in the process of arriving at 
the findings — i. e., incidentally and in relation to a process 
of collective thinking. 

From one standpoint it would be well to avoid regarding 
the reports as unified declarations or decisions. They are 


Preface to the American Edition xi 

quite as often specific statements of disagreement as they 
are of agreement. This was, be it recalled, one of the ob¬ 
jects set forth in the plans for the conference. 

There have been conferences of the churches which sub¬ 
jected findings to minute scrutiny and weighed every word 
until complete agreement had been reached by vote. This 
technique did not apply at most points in the Oxford proc¬ 
ess. Where employed at all it was more or less confined 
to the drafting process in the sections. When the reports 
came before the full conference they were debated at length 
and with the greatest possible freedom, but there was no 
attempt to bring four hundred and twenty-five delegates 
to unanimous agreement with regard to every word. It was 
indicated when votes were taken that acceptance meant 
general agreement with the form and contents of the state¬ 
ments. Since many of them contain contrasting views and 
define differences it would obviously be a serious misrepre¬ 
sentation to say that any one of the reports as it now stands 
can be quoted as a deliverance of the whole conference. 

hi 

In their totality the reports are a deliverance; in their 
separateness no one of them is so to be regarded. The form 
in which they are written, together with the introductory 
statements in each case, will be a guide to the reader with 
respect to this problem of interpretation. 

That this degree of uncertainty, this possibility of mis¬ 
interpretation, could have been avoided by a different pro¬ 
cedure at Oxford everyone is aware. But the plan followed 
was chosen deliberately and with full recognition of the 
risks involved because it seemed nearer to reality and there¬ 
fore of more value in the long run. It has been observed 
by a wise commentator on Oxford that “ councils and con¬ 
ferences, heretofore, have been for the most part concerned 


xii Preface to the American Edition 

about a show of unified expression, action or authority, 
even though this could be attained only by overriding, 
silencing, or compromising the divergent convictions of 
individuals and of groups. Oxford in 1937 offers the para¬ 
dox of a conference, the result of a measure of united action 
never hitherto attained, revealing and expressing its di¬ 
versities of opinion, attitude and judgment, with a degree 
of unconcern, if not of actual encouragement. The spirit 
of Oxford seems to have been, ‘ If we have differences of 
conviction and of practical judgment let us talk about them 
and let us try to understand them. If we still must differ, 
let us differ in love, and let each attack in his own way the 
common enemies — hate, violence, selfishness, and un¬ 
righteousness/ ” This description was more true of the 
discussions than of the reports. Yet the same experienced 
observer gives it as his deliberate opinion that the reports 
themselves “ fairly represent the convictions of more Chris¬ 
tians than have ever expressed themselves before in a com¬ 
mon formula.” It is that which makes them significant. 
And it is that which at the same time explains why they are 
not as startling or novel as the decisions of some smaller 
and less representative body might well have proved to be. 

IV 

As one listens to comment upon Oxford, however, one 
hears the word “ prophetic ” frequently applied to the 
declarations of the conference. A further, although a 
frankly personal, word of caution would seem to be in order 
here. A consensus of world Christian attitudes cannot be 
genuinely prophetic. Prophets now as in the past are not 
banded together in commissions or committees. They do 
not bring out reports! In the nature of things they cannot. 
Prophetic voices were heard at Oxford, that is certain. 
Look for their utterances in the excerpts from the addresses 


Preface to the American Edition xiii 

% 

of the plenary sessions, however, and not in the reports. If 
the reports were prophetic it would be necessary to discount 
them. They could then most certainly not be representa¬ 
tive of the mind of the churches. But, as has been shown, 
they are thus representative to a notable degree. There¬ 
fore they do not need to be discounted. They can be taken 
as an indication of where we are in contemporary organized 
Christianity. It is sometimes even more important to know 
that than it is to know what the most prophetic minds have 
to tell us about the way in which we should go forward. 

A signal service of the Oxford Conference would appear 
to be, then, that it has told the Christian world where the 
main bodies of disciples stand with regard to basic issues, 
how they express their agreements and where they find 
their disagreements. 


v 

It must likewise be recognized that the church which 
sought at Oxford to orient itself in the contemporary world 
situation is a church which although founded by a Car¬ 
penter has lost its hold on most of the carpenters of the 
world. The youth delegates at Oxford were the first to put 
discerning emphasis upon the fact that, while there was 
much effort to secure lay opinion, those relatively few lay¬ 
men who were related to the conference came not from the 
ranks of labor but from the middle or upper class of the 
economic world. To overlook this fact would be to blind 
ourselves to a matter of deep significance. The statements 
made at Oxford with regard to the economic order as con¬ 
fronted by the Christian do not — and under the circum¬ 
stances could not — take into account the approach of the 
artisan and the peasant, except by indirection. Even the 
pastors present, and they were there in considerable num¬ 
bers, were pastors of the upper and middle class sections 


xiv Preface to the American Edition 

of society and not themselves in intimate touch with the 
mind of labor, although familiar with the seriousness of the 
discontent which has taken so many of the toilers out of 
the church and has drawn them toward radical unionism 
if not toward communism as substitutes for religion. 

Although Americans, thanks to their fortunate situation 
as a free nation, are as yet unaware of the menace of the 
totalitarian state, they will find in what Oxford said and did 
a clear and challenging “ no ” to the pretensions of that 
type of state to dominate the very soul and conscience of 
its every citizen. Yet the sort of totalitarianism which was 
best understood and most clearly envisaged at Oxford was 
that which is found in fascist states such as Italy and Ger¬ 
many. There the menace to the church is not that it may 
be wiped out but that it may be prostituted to the purposes 
of a state which itself would become supreme even over 
Christ. Such preoccupation with a particular kind of 
totalitarianism was natural. There were present those 
from Germany, Italy, and Japan who knew from intimate 
contact with modern myth-making processes in what man¬ 
ner the church needs to be on guard. 

The same advantage was not enjoyed with regard to the 
state which deliberately seeks to be rid of all religion 
and to become completely secularist — for example, the 
U. S. S. R. The destruction of the church in Russia has 
progressed to such a point that it was not possible to have at 
Oxford representatives from within, although there were 
present many able Russian Orthodox leaders from without 
— from the Church in Exile. Their own contact with the 
inner developments of recent years in Russia has not been 
intimate; and it is of course colored by the fact that they 
have been so long compelled to live as exiles. Therefore 
no such adequate answer to the challenge of secularist, 
atheistic, communistic collectivism was possible at Oxford 


Preface to the American Edition xv 

as was possible with respect to the correlative challenge of 
fascism. 

In another sense, however, Oxford did provide a definite 
answer to . the challenge of communism. Communism 
charges Christianity with being opium to dull the senses of 
the oppressed. Oxford demonstrated that the Christians 
of today see in the gospel of their Lord not opium, or sugar, 
but salt. There was no attempt to gloss over the ugly facts 
of modern inequality, inhumanity, intolerance, and race 
prejudice. They were faced fearlessly and patiently. 
Again, communism declares that all religion is illusion. 
Oxford reaffirmed in unmistakable accents the conviction 
that the only reality that is ultimate is God, and that man 
apprehends that reality when he comes to know God in 
Christ. The reports, even though they may not reiterate it, 
are based squarely upon the living conviction that Chris¬ 
tianity is not a truth about life, but that it is the truth about 
life. 


VI 

If at any point the American Christian misses the sort of 
statement which is most congenial, he may well recall that 
much of the relativism of modern agnostic science has per¬ 
meated Christian thinking in America. The Oxford em¬ 
phasis may be, therefore, a corrective, just as it is a reminder 
that, in its days of rapid and triumphant expansion, Chris¬ 
tianity was not humanistic but theistic, not “ this-worldly ” 
but “ otherworldly.” Furthermore, anything designed pri¬ 
marily to express the American view would be almost 
unintelligible to Christians in many of the older lands. 
Even as it was, the work of the conference was regarded by 
certain prominent Europeans as too distinctively American! 

Finally, in introducing this volume to the American 
church public, it may not be amiss to call attention to the 


xvi Preface to the American Edition 

ways in which the results of Oxford must be related to the 
thinking and action of our various churches if they are to 
become the leaven that they ought to be. The leaven of 
which the Master spoke was hidden, but it was hidden in 
the dough, not outside it. To change the figure — the 
quiet germination of the seed sown is more important than 
any outward activity; but the germination can only take 
place within the life of our churches. To sow the seed here 
demands that it be transplanted from the Old World gar¬ 
dens of Oxford to the soil of the New World in America. 
Whether we think in terms of leaven or of germinating 
seeds the implications are plain. 

This volume of official reports is but part of the literature 
of Oxford, all of which is designed to help sow the seeds of 
new ideas and new purposes. Provision is made to meet the 
varied needs of various individuals and church groups. 
When the reader has completed the study of what Dr. Old¬ 
ham presents he may, if he wishes, have in ampler form 
many of the materials included herein. The preparatory 
studies leading up to Oxford are available. So are the 
fuller statements of leaders who spoke at the conference, in 
books prepared as part of the general process of study. 
There are discussion outlines based on the reports of the 
sections. A service of information and guidance in the use 
of the materials is maintained by the American Section of 
the Universal Christian Council, at 297 Fourth Avenue, 
New York City. The closest cooperation is desired in 
carrying forward the whole undertaking which this official 
volume launches in the United States. 


Henry Smith Leiper 


INTRODUCTION 


EDITORIAL NOTE 


strong desire has been expressed that the report of 



the Oxford Conference be available as early as possi¬ 
ble in the autumn. In response to this demand the whole 
of the material in this volume was prepared and edited 
immediately after the conclusion of the conference. It is 
believed that this volume contains the kind of record of 
the conference which most readers will wish to have. The 
aim has been to give the substance rather than the detail 
of what was done, and to preserve what is considered as 
having a more permanent value in distinction from what 
is of more ephemeral interest. Every care has been exer¬ 
cised to avoid mistakes but if defects are found in the struc¬ 
ture and contents of the report, or if errors and omissions 
are discovered, it is hoped that they will be regarded with 
leniency in view of the pressure under which the report 
has been prepared. 


J. H. Oldham 



INTRODUCTION 


by J. H. Oldham 


1 . THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONFERENCE 

he Conference on Church, Community and State 



X which met at Oxford from July 12 to 26 was a signifi¬ 
cant event in the history of the Christian church. It was 
significant on account of both its theme and its member¬ 
ship. 

(a) The Theme. The subject of the conference was 
the relation of the church to the state and to the commu¬ 
nity. The age-long conflict between the church and the 
secular power has, after an era of accommodation and tol¬ 
eration, again become acute in our time. Yet the funda¬ 
mental religious problem of today, as Mr. Christopher 
Dawson has pointed out, is not so much the problem of the 
relation of church and state “ in the traditional sense of 
two parallel and complementary societies which respec¬ 
tively order and guide the temporal and spiritual life of 
the community so that the latter only attains social con¬ 
sciousness through and in them/’ It is much more basi¬ 
cally the problem of the relation of the church to the all- 
embracing claims of a communal life. It is the problem of 
** how religion is to survive in a single community which 
is neither church nor state, which recognizes no formal 
limits, but which covers the whole of life and claims to be 
the source and goal of every human activity.” 1 The church 
is clearly facing today one of the major crises in its history. 
It is confronted once again with a problem analogous to 
that which met it in its early days as it faced the Roman 


1 The Tablet , June 26, 1937. 


2 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

world. The question which arose then, and which now 
meets us again is one which Professor Ernest Barker has 
described 2 as perhaps the profoundest in history — the 
question of the relation between the church as owning 
allegiance to a supra-mundane authority and the integrated 
body which is community-state or state-community. The 
essential theme of the Oxford Conference, as was stated in 
the first announcement of it, was the life-and-death struggle 
between Christian faith and the secular and pagan tenden¬ 
cies of our time. 

(b) The Membership. The conference was significant, 
in the second place, on account of its representative charac¬ 
ter. Unhappily, it did not represent the whole of Chris¬ 
tianity. There were two notable abstentions. 

The Church of Rome took no official part in the con¬ 
ference. Its participation in the common discussion of 
issues which vitally concern the Christian faith and the 
future of Christianity would have been welcomed. Some 
of its thinkers and scholars had given valuable though un¬ 
official assistance in the preparatory work for the confer¬ 
ence, but the authorities of the church were averse to any 
official participation. The Archbishop of Canterbury in 
his presidential address expressed the hope that the day 
may come when common dangers and a true sense of the 
real facts of Christendom may lead the authorities of the 
Roman Church to sanction active cooperation with their 
fellow Christians. 

The other notable absence was that of the German 
Evangelical Church. It was a serious loss to the conference 
that representatives of a church possessing so great a tradi¬ 
tion and so rich in theological learning were not able to 
take part in its deliberations. The conference addressed 

2 In a paper contributed to the forthcoming volume on Church and 
Community (see p. 43). 


Introduction 


3 

to the German Evangelical Church a message of sympathy 
and of thankfulness for its steadfast witness to Christ . 3 

Apart from these two main exceptions the conference 
was representative of present-day Christianity throughout 
the world. It is true that, as has been stated in some re¬ 
ports of the conference, certain traditions and types of 
Christian thought were more largely represented than oth¬ 
ers. But when due allowance has been made for this, the 
range of Christian tradition and experience represented is 
remarkable. Delegates from forty different countries were 
present. Of the four hundred and twenty-five members 
of the conference, three hundred were appointed officially 
to represent all the principal churches in the United 
States of America, in Great Britain, in the British Domin¬ 
ions and on the continent of Europe. The Eastern Ortho¬ 
dox churches were represented by some of their leading 
patriarchs, bishops and scholars. Representatives of the 
Old Catholics took part in the proceedings. There were 
delegates also from the younger churches in Japan, China, 
India, Africa and South America . 4 

In addition to the delegates appointed by the churches, 
there were one hundred members of the conference ap¬ 
pointed by the Universal Christian Council on the advice 
of the sections of which it is composed, who took counsel 
with the churches in their respective areas. The object of 
this provision was to insure that the membership of the 
conference should include a sufficient proportion of Chris¬ 
tian laity representing other departments of knowledge be¬ 
sides theology and possessing practical experience of public 
affairs. It would have been absurd for the conference to 
consider the relation of the church to the common life, to 
government, to the economic order and to international 

3 The text of the message is given on pp. 259-60. 

4 A list of the churches represented is given on pp. 277 ff. 


4 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

questions without the help of those who had expert knowl¬ 
edge and experience of actual responsibility in these fields. 
The work of the conference gained enormously by the 
contributions — to name only a few of its lay members — 
of Lord Cecil, Lord Lothian, Sir Josiah Stamp, Sir Alfred 
Zimmern, Sir Walter Moberly, the Honorable Francis B. 
Sayre, Mr. John Foster Dulles, Mr. Charles P. Taft, the 
Master of Balliol, Professor R. H. Tawney, Mr. John 
Maud, Professor Max Huber, Professor Scholten, Profes¬ 
sor Alexeiev and Dr. Bjorkquist. The remaining twenty- 
five places in the membership were filled by representatives 
of the other ecumenical movements and by officers respon¬ 
sible for the preparation of the conference . 5 

In addition to the official delegates, four hundred places 
were assigned to visitors or associate delegates, among 
whom were included many leading church-members who 
had not been appointed official delegates. A hundred 
places were given to representatives of youth. Members of 
these groups were present at the plenary sessions of the 
conference but not at the meetings of the sections. Special 
meetings were arranged for both groups, and members of 
the youth group devoted considerable time to preparation 
for the youth conference which it is proposed to hold in 
1939 - 

(c) The Results. For the two reasons which have been 
given, the conference would be a significant event in the 
history of the church even if it had failed. Its failure would 
have meant that representatives of the Christian church 
throughout the world had come together at a critical hour 
in Christian history and had missed a great opportunity. 
It would have meant that they had not been able to arrive 

5 The names of the delegates who attended the conference are given on 
pp. 283 ff. It seemed desirable, for reasons referred to later, to arrange the 
names not by countries or churches, but according to the sections which 
dealt with the five main subjects of the conference. 


Introduction 


5 

together at a deeper understanding of the situation which 
the church is facing, nor to reach a more common mind 
regarding the witness and action of the church for which 
the situation calls. That, however regrettable, would have 
been a fact of large historical significance. 

What the conference accomplished and may yet bring 
to pass in the life of the church is known only to God. Its 
fruits can manifest themselves to human eyes only in the 
coming years. But to those who took part in it, it did not 
seem to have failed. For many it surpassed their expecta¬ 
tions. The common thought and prayer with the repre¬ 
sentatives of so many different nations and races was a new 
and for many a unique experience of the reality of the uni¬ 
versal fellowship of the Christian church. The measure of 
agreement reached by those coming together from such 
diverse backgrounds was greater than most had dared to 
hope. 

The results of the conference may be summed up under 
three heads. The first is the answers to the prayers that 
were offered in common. These cannot be measured by 
men, but few who were at Oxford can have left it without 
the feeling that in the united worship, spiritual forces were 
set in motion which may in the years to come vitalize the 
life of the church. Second, there is the contribution of the 
conference to the thought of the church. This is described, 
and in part embodied, in the present volume. It finds fur¬ 
ther expression in the related volumes to which reference 
is made elsewhere . 6 Readers have the opportunity of judg¬ 
ing for themselves of its value. Third, there is the effect 
of the conference in the lives of those who took part in it 
and of those who come under its influence. What was 
given at Oxford was not the end but a beginning. The 
dedication of themselves by the members of the conference 

e See pp. 42-44. 


6 


The Story of the Oxford Conference 


to the service of God and of men in our generation has to 
be continually renewed in repeated acts of faith and obedi¬ 
ence. 


2. THE CONCEPTION AND PREPARATION 
OF THE CONFERENCE 

The conference at Oxford was the successor of the Uni¬ 
versal Christian Conference on Life and Work held at 
Stockholm in 1925 on the initiative and under the leader¬ 
ship of the late Nathan Soderblom, Archbishop of Upsala. 
To the memory of this remarkable man the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, at the opening of the Oxford Conference, 
paid a tribute of reverent remembrance. He spoke of “ his 
versatility of mind, his vitality of spirit, his insight into the 
needs of his time, his foresight of the needs of the future, 
and the unquenchable optimism of his faith.” 

The conference at Stockholm provided for the carrying 
forward of its work through the appointment of a continu¬ 
ation committee, which later brought into existence the 
Universal Christian Council for Life and Work. Pro¬ 
posals were also discussed at Stockholm for the establish¬ 
ment of an institute and research bureau. The matter was 
referred to a committee which drew up a plan and pre¬ 
sented it in the following year. A leading part in this 
effort was taken by Pastor Gounelle of France, Bishop 
Billing of Sweden and Principal A. E. Garvie of Great 
Britain. Dr. Adolf Keller was given responsibility for the 
institute and it was suggested that as soon as possible 
trained investigators be assigned to the institute by the 
churches in Germany, Sweden, Great Britain and America. 
The response from the Continent was greater than from 
the Anglo-Saxon countries. A German collaborator was ap¬ 
pointed in 1928 — Dr. Hans Schonfeld, who subsequently 
became director of the research department. He was 


Introduction 


1 

joined later by a Swedish collaborator, the Reverend Nils 
Ehrenstrom. 

In 1932 the research department took the important step 
of calling together a small international conference on the 
subject of unemployment. This led to consideration of 
other aspects of the economic and social problem and to 
the holding of a further conference in 1933 at Rengsdorf, 
one attended by theologians, sociologists and economists. 
Its subject was “ The Church and the Social Order.” At 
these conferences it became increasingly clear that the so¬ 
cial problem was inseparably bound up with the nature 
and claims of the modern state, with its power to direct and 
mold social life. It seemed plain that Christian thought 
must be directed with the utmost energy to the problem 
of the state. The first step in this direction was the hold¬ 
ing of a small international conference in Paris, in the 
spring of 1934, on the subject of “ The Church and the 
Modern Problem of the State.” 

In the meantime, conditions in various countries, and 
more particularly the difficulties of the church in Germany, 
had helped to bring home to the Christian mind through¬ 
out the world the reality and urgency of the problem of the 
state. The decision was, therefore, taken at the meeting 
of the Universal Christian Council held in Fan0 in 1934 
to convene a world conference of the churches on the sub¬ 
ject of church, community and state. 

Dr. J. H. Oldham was invited to be chairman of the re¬ 
search commission charged with the preparatory work for 
the conference, and an office was set up in London to sup¬ 
plement the work undertaken at Geneva. An advisory 
council was formed in Great Britain composed of leaders 
of the churches and a number of distinguished laymen un¬ 
der the chairmanship of Sir Walter Moberly. A little later 
a similar step was taken in America, and the work of the 


8 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

American section of the Universal Christian Council was 
supplemented by the formation of an advisory council with 
Dr. John R. Mott as chairman. The research work in 
America was placed under the able direction of Dean H. P. 
Van Dusen and Professor John Bennett. 

It was decided that the preliminary study should deal 
with the following nine main subjects: The Christian un¬ 
derstanding of man; the kingdom of God and history; 
the Christian faith and the common life; the church and 
its function in society; the church and the community; the 
church and the state; church, community and state in rela¬ 
tion to education; church, community and state in relation 
to the social order; the universal church and the world of 
nations. 

In preparation for the meeting at Oxford, a number of 
small international conferences were held for preliminary 
study of the subjects which would engage its attention. 
More than a dozen such meetings took place in the two or 
three years preceding the Oxford Conference. Some of 
these were small groups whose membership was restricted 
to ten or twelve; others were larger, the attendance num¬ 
bering thirty or forty or even more. 

A continuous interchange of thought was also carried on 
by the circulation of papers. More than a hundred con¬ 
tributions by leading thinkers were secured and submitted 
in English, German and French to others for criticism. 
Comments on some of these were received from as many as 
thirty or forty persons in different countries and repre¬ 
sented different Christian traditions. The comments 
varied in length from letters of two or three pages, which 
even in this brief form might contain suggestions of the 
highest value, to memoranda extending to twenty or thirty 
pages. At least three or four hundred persons, including 
some of the ablest minds in the church, took part in this 
interchange of thought. They represented the most di- 


Introduction 


9 

verse theological traditions and the widest differences of 
view on social and political questions. It is hardly possi¬ 
ble to overestimate the educative value of this ecumenical 
interchange of thought for those who participated in it. 
The more important contributions resulting from this pre¬ 
liminary study will be made available to the public in a 
series of forthcoming volumes. 7 

The thoroughness of the preparation for the Oxford Con¬ 
ference was possible only because there was available for 
carrying it out a staff of full-time workers. In planning for 
an international Christian gathering, the churches had at 
their disposal for the first time several persons who had the 
necessary leisure to undertake, on a considerable scale, the 
circulation of manuscripts, to conduct an extensive and 
continuous correspondence and, above all, to get into per¬ 
sonal touch with a number of leading Christian thinkers 
in different countries and enlist their cooperation. 

The preparatory work for the Oxford Conference has 
revealed how relatively slender are the resources on which 
the church can at present draw for dealing with questions 
which lie on the border line between doctrine and life, 
and which for their understanding and solution demand a 
combination of theological insight and experience of prac¬ 
tical affairs. The major importance of the Oxford Con¬ 
ference may lie less in the value of the conclusions which 
it reached on the subjects with which it dealt than in the 
fact that it did something to awaken the mind of the church 
to their significance and urgency and attempted to lay 
foundations for their continued study in the years to come. 

3. THE WORSHIP OF THE CONFERENCE 

If one may judge from conversations with many of the 
delegates, the feeling of the majority, as they look back on 
the conference, is that what meant most to them was the 


7 See pp. 42-44. 


io The Story of the Oxford Conference 

common worship in St. Mary’s Church. Every morning 
for half an hour, from nine thirty to ten, and every after¬ 
noon at six forty-five for twenty minutes, the members of 
the conference met for prayer. There was little in the na¬ 
ture of an address at the services; the time was given over 
almost wholly to worship and intercession during which 
there were considerable spaces of silence. The attendance 
at the services was remarkable, and it was maintained, or 
grew, as the days passed. It was evident that the members 
of the conference felt that, notwithstanding the intense and 
unremitting pressure of business which left little time for 
rest or recreation, these opportunities of united prayer 
were something they could not afford to miss. It is hardly 
possible to convey to those who were not present what the 
daily united worship in a company drawn from many coun¬ 
tries, peoples and races and from many different streams of 
Christian tradition meant to those who took part in it. In 
the periods of silence there was often an overpowering sense 
that things were happening in the spiritual world, and that 
in the coming years one might expect to see in the break¬ 
ing out of new life in countless directions an answer to the 
prayers that were being offered to God. 

On the afternoon of the first Sunday, the members of the 
conference met for an hour and a half in St. Mary’s to en¬ 
deavor together to translate the work of the conference into 
prayer. Intercession was made for the church throughout 
the world, the various countries being mentioned in turn by 
name. The prayers of the congregation were gathered up 
in three specific requests. First, that through the moving 
of God’s Spirit in the hearts of men a release of new ener¬ 
gies might take place throughout the world, finding expres¬ 
sion in a multitude of different centers in endlessly various 
forms of spontaneous activity. Second, that the church 
everywhere might acquire a growing consciousness of its 


Introduction 


i 1 

own true nature as an ecumenical society. Third, that the 
eyes of Christian people might be opened to see and under¬ 
stand the truth to which the church is called to bear wit¬ 
ness in the world today and the ways in which it is meant 
to serve God and men. Prayer for the church was followed 
by prayer for divine light and guidance in the delibera¬ 
tions of the conference, the chairman of each of the sec¬ 
tions stating in turn the matters connected with the work 
of his section which seemed to him especially to call for 
prayer. Finally, prayer was made that grace might be given 
the members of the conference — that they might be given, 
first, a sense of creatureliness; second, the spirit of peni¬ 
tence; third, the gift of forgiveness; fourth, the spirit of 
learning; and fifth, the spirit of confidence and hope. 

It has been said that the majority of the delegates found 
the common worship of the conference deeply helpful. 
For some who were unused to any kind of liturgical wor¬ 
ship, the use made of liturgical forms and the considerable 
spaces of silence were a new and enriching experience. It 
is, however, an evidence of the depth of our present divi¬ 
sions and of the difficulty of finding generally acceptable 
forms of worship that some of the delegates, and in particu¬ 
lar the members of the Orthodox churches and the Anglo- 
catholics, felt that the services had a marked Protestant 
character and were lacking in much that they would have 
desired. A means of uniting the Catholic and Protestant 
traditions of worship has not yet been found and serious 
thought will need to be given this problem in the future 
of the ecumenical movement. 

Nonetheless, important lessons were learned for the fu¬ 
ture. One is the value for a mixed gathering of this kind 
of sharing in the characteristic forms of worship of some of 
the great classical traditions of Christendom. A beginning 
at least was made in such sharing — for example, in one of 


12 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

the afternoon services based on the vespers of the Orthodox 
Church — and there is scope for extending it to other tra¬ 
ditions of worship. A second lesson is the experience of 
spiritual unity which comes from the participation in sim¬ 
ple and informal acts of meditation and intercession, acts 
which belong to no particular tradition but are the com¬ 
mon heritage of all Christ’s disciples. Both these types of 
worship are essential to the growth of a truly ecumenical 
understanding. 

On the first Sunday of the conference the holy com¬ 
munion was celebrated, according to the Anglican rite in 
St. Mary’s Church, according to the Orthodox rite in the 
chapel of Hertford College, and according to the Reformed 
tradition in the chapel of Mansfield College. On the sec¬ 
ond Sunday a celebration of holy communion according 
to the Anglican rite took place at eight o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing. At this service, delegates who were baptized and com¬ 
municant members of other Christian churches were also 
invited to receive communion. There were, in fact, two 
parallel services, since the number desiring to take part 
was greater than could be provided for in one church. The 
official delegates and those accompanying them gathered 
in St. Mary’s where the Archbishop of Canterbury cele¬ 
brated, and the associate and youth delegates gathered in 
St. Aldate’s Church where the Bishop of Chichester was 
celebrant. The picture of the congregation in St. Mary’s, 
filling almost the entire church and composed of represen 
tatives of many nations and races, all confessing allegiance 
to one Head and all partaking of the one bread and the one 
cup, will not quickly fade from the memory of those who 
saw it. 

On the afternoon of the last Sunday there was a closing 
service of thanksgiving and dedication. Thanksgiving was 
made for the manifold work which had made the confer- 


Introduction 


13 

ence possible and prayer was offered that God who had be¬ 
gun a good work in us would continue it until the day when 
Christ comes into his own. The first part of the service was 
led by the rector of St. Mary’s and closed by Archbishop 
Germanos, who led the congregation in the Lord’s Prayer. 
Then followed three short addresses in the three languages 
of the conference by Dr. John R. Mott, M. Marc Boegner 
and the Archbishop of Upsala. In the final act of dedica¬ 
tion, the Archbishop of Canterbury led the members of the 
conference in a common offering of themselves, their souls 
and bodies, to be a holy and living sacrifice to God. 

4. THE WORK OF THE CONFERENCE 

The work of the conference can be rightly understood 
only if it is viewed as marking a stage in a long, continuing 
process. It was realized from the beginning of the work of 
preparation that the attempt by the Christian churches to 
reach a clearer common mind regarding their witness and 
action in the social and political spheres, and a deeper un¬ 
derstanding of the differences that separate them, was not 
one which could be accomplished in a fortnight but must 
be the task of many years. What the conference was able 
to do was to coordinate, extend and amplify the results of 
much preliminary thinking, and in a series of tentative 
formulations to provide a promising starting point for 
future thought and study. 

If the reports which form the main contents of this vol¬ 
ume are to be appraised at their true value, both their rela¬ 
tion to the preliminary study of the preceding two or three 
years and the nature of the process through which they 
took their present shape at the conference must be clearly 
understood. It is desirable, therefore, that as precise an 
account as possible should be given of the whole process. 

A few weeks in advance of its meeting the members of 


14 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

the conference received draft reports on the main sub¬ 
jects of deliberation, prepared by the chairmen of the sec¬ 
tions into which the conference was to be divided. A 
first draft of each of these documents, based on the results 
of the preliminary study, was prepared in January, 1937, 
and submitted for criticism to a group of advisers in dif¬ 
ferent countries. In the light of their comments a fresh 
draft was written in April and issued in printed form to 
the delegates. In addition the members of each section 
received a number of papers in mimeographed form deal¬ 
ing with the subject of the section. Most of these papers 
were drafts of contributions to the volumes embodying the 
results of the preparatory work. 

As the work of the conference proceeded, the advance 
draft reports were completely discarded, and the reports 
which finally emerged are entirely new documents. They 
could hardly have assumed the form they did, however, 
unless the minds of those who produced them had been 
stimulated, educated and brought a certain distance along 
the road by the study of the preparatory material. 

The sections met simultaneously for four full morning 
sessions and also on three or four evenings. Each section 
appointed a small drafting committee of from ten to fifteen 
members. These committees worked during every free 
hour, including the week end in the middle of the con¬ 
ference, which was free from meetings, and far into the 
night. The actual writing of the reports was the work of 
these committees, but what they wrote was the product of 
minds stimulated and fed by the discussions in the sections. 
Thus the reports are not simply the work of a few indi¬ 
viduals but the result of genuine group thinking. The 
plan of breaking up the conference into sections of about 
eighty members and of appointing smaller drafting com- 


Introduction 


15 

mittees had this advantage, that it gave every member of the 
conference an opportunity of contributing to its thought 
and at the same time distributed the major responsibility 
for its productive work among as many as fifty or sixty of 
its members. 

In the second week the reports of the sections were pre¬ 
sented to the whole conference. Two sessions were given 
to the discussion of each report, with the exception of that 
on education, for which only one session could be assigned. 
The object of presenting the reports to the full conference 
was a double one. In the first place, it enabled the mem¬ 
bers of the conference, the visitors and the public to gain a 
knowledge of the work of each section and to form some 
picture of the work of the conference as a whole. Second, 
it provided an opportunity for some of those members of 
the conference (approximately four-fifths of the total mem¬ 
bership) who had not taken part in the work of the report¬ 
ing section to make a contribution to the subject. It was 
obviously quite impossible for the conference in the time 
at its disposal to debate the reports sentence by sentence 
and to approve of them by vote. What it could do was to 
improve them by criticism and enrich them by construc¬ 
tive suggestion. The succession of brief speeches, each 
limited to seven minutes, provided valuable criticism and 
a wealth of fresh suggestion. The reports were referred 
back to the sections for revision and amendment in the 
light of the discussion. The conference was not asked to 
approve their contents in detail. It commended them to 
the churches as the best statement on the subject it could 
arrive at in the time at its disposal. 

It will thus be seen that the main responsibility for each 
report rests with the section which produced it. The pre¬ 
cise action taken in regard to each report is stated in an 


16 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

introductory note to each of the separate reports. The list 
of members of the sections 8 shows what wide divergences 
of tradition and national background were represented in 
every case. The loss resulting from the nonparticipation 
in the conference of representatives of the German Evan¬ 
gelical Church has already been mentioned, and in some 
of the sections certain important points of view may have 
been insufficiently represented. But on the whole, the 
membership of each section represented the main tenden¬ 
cies of thought present in the conference. It must be re¬ 
membered also that those who prepared the reports were 
able to draw not only on the contributions of the section 
members but on the much wider body of thought which 
had found expression in the preparatory work. 

It was not the aim of the conference to issue authoritative 
pronouncements on large, difficult and controversial sub¬ 
jects. Its object was to provide, on the basis of the prepara¬ 
tory work and of the deliberations during a fortnight of a 
representative assembly, as comprehensive and balanced a 
statement as was possible, in the time and with the re¬ 
sources at its disposal, of the present mind of the church. 

In view of the thoroughness of the preparatory work and 
of the representative character of the gathering, the re¬ 
ports may be regarded as providing a more adequate ‘ex¬ 
pression of the Christian mind at the present time than has 
hitherto been available. This does not mean that there 
may not be found elsewhere profounder, more penetrating 
and more illuminating discussions of the same subjects. 
These, however, in so far as they exist, are contributions of 
individual minds or of less widely representative groups. 
The reports of the Oxford Conference are significant be¬ 
cause what they say is what a large body of Christians, repre¬ 
sentatives of diverse countries and Christian traditions, 

s See pp. 283 ff. 


Introduction 


*7 

were prepared — on the whole, and doubtless with many 
qualifications on specific points on the part of individual 
members of the conference — to say together. 

Of hardly less interest, perhaps, than what the reports 
contain is what they do not contain. Many ideas were put 
forward which on examination were rejected as mistaken, 
or misleading, or insufficiently rooted in a genuinely Chris¬ 
tian understanding of life. 

None would be more ready than the authors of the re¬ 
ports to admit that they are not the final word on the large 
subjects of which they treat. They are submitted only as a 
starting point for deeper reflection and further inquiry. 
But the results of a sustained effort of ecumenical thought 
do provide foundations on which we can build in the fu¬ 
ture. The next step is to examine these conclusions criti¬ 
cally, to test them in the light of practical experience and so 
advance step by step to a deeper understanding of the mis¬ 
sion and responsibilities of the church in relation to the life 
of men today. 

The clue to an understanding of the reports is to realize 
that they aim primarily at doing two things. The first is 
to define the points in the contemporary situation at which 
the specifically Christian understanding of life is crucially 
involved. The second is to define the right Christian atti¬ 
tude on these issues, taking account of the measure of agree¬ 
ment at present existing among Christians and equally of 
the differences of view which now divide them. The re¬ 
ports conform in varying degrees to this general plan. It 
stands out more clearly in the structure of some than of 
others. It could not be expected that different groups, in¬ 
cluding many vigorous and independent minds, all work¬ 
ing at high pressure, would adhere strictly to a predeter¬ 
mined plan. Moreover, a certain adaptation to differences 
in subject matter was to be preferred to a too rigid uni- 


18 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

formity. Substantially, however, the aim which has been 
indicated is what all the sections had in view. It is hardly 
necessary to emphasize the importance of the aim or the 
value of even a moderate advance toward its achievement. 
In so far as a representative, world-wide gathering of Chris¬ 
tians is able to agree on the issues which in our time most 
vitally concern the Christian faith, we obtain a sense of di¬ 
rection. The points of crucial importance to which all 
Christian effort must in the immediate future be directed 
have been defined. It is no small advantage that a begin¬ 
ning should have been made in defining the measure of 
agreement among Christians on these major issues and also 
the main points of difference. These latter indicate the 
tasks still to be undertaken in order that the differences 
may be transcended in a deeper and richer apprehension 
of the truth. 

The coordination of the work of the different sections 
and the unification in general, though not in detail, of their 
aim and procedure was secured by two provisions. The 
first was a small conference, during the week end preceding 
the main conference, of the chairmen and secretaries of the 
sections with a few of those who had been principally re¬ 
sponsible for the preparatory work. The second was a daily 
luncheon meeting, during the first week of the conference, 
of the chairmen of all the sections with the chairman of the 
business committee and the chairman of the research com¬ 
mission. Without these meetings it would hardly have 
been possible to carry through the plan of the conference. 

It is impossible to conclude a statement about the work 
of the conference without a grateful reference to the staff 
of translators and stenographers. In order to avoid the 
necessity of spoken translation, the addresses given at the 
plenary sessions were translated in advance and their full 
translated text was placed in the hands of those who could 


Introduction 


19 

not easily follow the speaker in his own language. All 
speeches made in the sections and at the plenary sessions 
when the reports were presented were translated in an ab¬ 
breviated form into two languages. The successive drafts 
of the reports were supplied to all members of the section 
in three languages. To fulfill this immense task, trans¬ 
lators and stenographers worked without recreation and 
with a minimum of rest. The conference was no less in¬ 
debted to Mr. T. R. S. Boase and to those who under his 
direction were responsible for the arrangements at Oxford. 
Gratitude is due also to M. H. L. Henriod and to the Rev¬ 
erend Eric Fenn, the secretaries of the conference, for 
their devoted and untiring labors. That no one broke 
down under the strain is one of the many manifestations of 
God’s goodness and overshadowing mercy by which those 
responsible for the work of the conference were sustained 
and cheered. 

5. THE ADDRESSES AT THE PLENARY SESSIONS 

During the first week of the conference, in addition to 
the opening meeting in the Sheldonian Theater at which 
the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered his presidential 
address, there were five plenary sessions which heard thir¬ 
teen addresses. 9 These speeches made an important con¬ 
tribution to the thought of the conference, and they cannot 
be disregarded in a report of its work. It has, however, 
been a great perplexity to know how to deal with them. 
To print them in full would make the volume at least half 
as long again, nor could they be printed in their present 
form without consultation with their authors, a matter 
which would delay publication. The attempt was made to 
provide a summary of each, but a succession of summaries 

9 Particulars regarding these addresses will be found in the program 
on pp. 268 ff. 


20 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

is likely to be wearisome, and it became doubtful whether 
compression without consultation with the speakers would 
do justice to the balance of their thought. 

The only other possibility appeared to be for the writer 
of this introductory article to glean from the speeches what 
seemed to him most significant and present it in the shape 
which it took in his own mind. Such a presentation of 
course is bound to be partial and incomplete. For a variety 
of reasons, often of an accidental and more or less trivial 
nature, much that was said has had to be left out altogether. 
The selection of the material is inevitably determined by 
the predilections of an individual mind. On the other 
hand, this method may perhaps result in a statement more 
readable and interesting than a succession of summaries. 
It can at least be claimed that, whatever its shortcomings, 
this presentation rests on careful and repeated reading of 
the speeches in their manuscript form. 

(a) The Significance of the Church. The Archbishop 
of Canterbury, in his sermon during the special service in 
St. Paul's for the delegates to the two conferences at Oxford 
and Edinburgh, noted as one of the outstanding features of 
both conferences the place given to the theme of the church. 
“ Gone are the days of individualism in religion, the self- 
sufficiency in the life of particular churches. There is ever 
before the mind of the conferences the conception of the 
church as one body in ideal, if not yet in actual fact —with 
one life, one faith, one mission to the world.” This reality 
of the church and of our common Christianity, he insisted 
(both in this sermon and in his presidential address at Ox¬ 
ford) , is based, and can only be based, on a firm and defi¬ 
nite faith. It must rest on the great acts of God wrought in 
human life and history. 

Other speakers at Oxford recurred to the same theme. 
The church exists to proclaim a gospel. Dogma and church 


Introduction 


21 


belong together. The church stands or falls on the ques¬ 
tion whether history has a center from which it takes its 
meaning. In a day when men are turning away from the 
relativism of human ideals and purposes to seek support 
in what seem to them the solid realities of race and nation 

— realities which are not of their own making and which 
can therefore command the surrender of their whole being 

— the church can triumph only by unshakable faith in a 
truth which is independent of our own wishes, and to 
which, in the end, all things must bend. 

What constitutes the church, M. Pierre Maury urged, is 
that it is not only or essentially a human organization, but 
a community of which Jesus Christ is Lord and in which he 
works by his Holy Spirit. The essential word in this defini¬ 
tion is beyond doubt the word “ Lord.” The distinctive 
thing about the communities which claim the name of 
church is that all declare that they have a sovereign Lord. 
The vital matter is that the church should always be the 
church — that it should continually regain its essential 
character as the church. The world is always trying to per¬ 
suade the church to renounce its independence — that is 
to say, its sole dependence on its Lord. It seeks to reduce 
the life of the church to the common level, to integrate it 
with the life of the world, offering it in return a recognized 
place, certain rights and sometimes considerable privileges. 
It seeks to make use of the church — to enlist it as the cham¬ 
pion of human causes, whether on the right or on the 
left. The church has constantly succumbed to these temp¬ 
tations. It has agreed to recognize other lords besides its 
sole Lord. We need to be continually vigilant to make 
sure that the church is not the church of democracy, or of a 
class, or of the nation, but above all and exclusively the 
church of Jesus Christ. 

(b) The Church as an Ecumenical Society. At the 


22 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

opening meeting of the conference the Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury asserted that the existence of the ecumenical move¬ 
ment, as expressed in the three conferences at Oxford, 
Edinburgh and (in 1938) Hangchow, might justly be 
described as “ a wholly new fact in Christian history.” It 
revealed the possibility of a unity of Christians which tran¬ 
scends barriers of race and nationality and brings to the 
rescue of the kingdoms of the world the saving energies of 
the kingdom of God. The same note was struck again and 
again in other addresses. Nothing stood out more clearly 
in the thought and work of the Oxford Conference than 
the recognition that the church in its essential nature is a 
universal society united in its one Lord in whom there can 
be neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond 
nor free. 

It is precisely this inescapable universalism, as Mr. Paton 
pointed out, that places the church in the front of the battle 
where there is an attempt to make the nation or race the 
ultimate authority over human life. The church is not, 
and can never be, the church of a local community. The 
church in any particular locality is part of a universal com¬ 
munity and is known to be such. It must therefore evoke 
the hostility of those for whom the claims of nationality 
and race are supreme. Here we stand face to face with a 
great “ either . . . or ” —with one of the great choices on 
which the future of mankind must depend. 

Unfortunately, Christians generally have as yet very little 
understanding of the ecumenical nature of the church. 
The average church member, as Dr. S. M. Cavert reminded 
the conference, is hardly aware that he belongs to a Chris¬ 
tian world community. His predominant loyalty is to 
a local congregation or at the most to a nation-wide de¬ 
nomination. Because he lacks the vision of the church as a 
fellowship so vital as to transcend the ordinary barriers 


Introduction 


23 

that separate man from man, it does not appear to him to 
stand for community at all. And because the church does 
not seem to stand for community it does not seem signifi¬ 
cant enough to command a strong allegiance, nor does it 
give the impression that it might be the unifying force 
which could save civilization from disintegration. A visi¬ 
tor to America would not always find employers and factory 
workers meeting in the same place of worship, or whites 
and Negroes worshiping together the common Father of 
both. Nor would it appear to him that American Chris¬ 
tians felt that they had more in common with their fellow 
Christians in Germany or Japan than with their fellow 
Americans who do not share the Christian understanding 
of life. 

In burning and searching words Dr. T. Z. Koo exposed 
the church’s failure to hold up its own spiritual standards 
before society. It is rather society which is dictating its 
own standards to Christians — for example, in the treat¬ 
ment by Western nations of the colored peoples. When 
the church itself tolerates racial discrimination in its own 
fellowship it becomes a byword and an object of contempt. 
The church has become secular through the denial by our 
divisions of the universality of Christianity. All sorts of 
barriers exist between Christian and Christian. Attempts 
at unity have failed because we have set one tradition in 
opposition to another. It is only when we use the rich 
heritage of the past not as a weight to hold us back but as a 
springboard to carry us into the future that we shall attain 
unity. 

A similar challenge found utterance in Mr. Paton’s ad¬ 
dress which drew attention to the terrible relevance of 
the Jewish problem in the world. Where Jewish converts 
are not welcomed by members of the church the witness of 
the church to its Lord is at an end. It is not merely that a 


24 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

somewhat limited Christianity persists: what is left is not 
Christianity. Can a tribal or racial God forgive sins? And 
how is it possible to say that in Christ we are members of a 
universal brotherhood, when Christendom as a whole has 
shown so little concern for the fate of Christians of Jewish 
blood, in contrast with the loyalty with which Jews have 
stood by their own people? 

The national and racial element in the differences which 
separate Christians is today, Mr. T. S. Eliot suggested, very 
clearly in consciousness. Our forms of worship, our the¬ 
ology, have been fractured by two great forces — that 
which may roughly be called nation or race or language 
(since it is impossible to dissociate these three elements), 
and that which may roughly be called class or social group. 
A sensible philosophy, Christian or secular, will neither 
exalt race or nation or class to an unnatural primacy, nor 
attempt to eradicate these differences. If we keep in mind 
the ideal of the ecumenical society we must at first take the 
facts as we find them; that is to say, we need to take account 
not only of the actual differences of faith and order but also 
of the sociological differences. In a world which for many 
generations has done its thinking, and especially its theo¬ 
logical thinking, very largely in compartments of nation 
and class, certain means of criticism are lost, and the com¬ 
munions in not knowing one another cease to know them¬ 
selves. The present interest of various Christian com¬ 
munions in finding out more about one another is a most 
hopeful sign, because in learning more about other com¬ 
munions each will learn more about itself. Thus we shall 
come to recognize for what they are local and national ways 
of thinking, feeling and behavior, ways right enough in 
themselves but capable of doing harm if they are accepted 
as an integral part of the faith. 

The question of Christianity and nationalism in Japan 


Introduction 


25 

and of the Christian attitude toward worship at the shrines 
was dealt with in an address by the Reverend Chukichi 
Yasuda of Kyoto. 

(c) The Contemporary Situation. Before we turn to 
the witness, mission and task of the church in relation to 
the world we must look for a moment at the contemporary 
situation. For, as M. Pierre Maury pointed out, however 
much we insist on loyalty to Christ as the sole standard of 
reference and court of appeal for the church, we must not 
neglect the moment of time in which the church is called 
to obey and serve its Lord. History — the history of both 
the church and the world — has an essential significance for 
the believer. 

The main features of the world as it is today are set forth 
in the reports of the conference with what the Archbishop 
of Canterbury described as a “ relentless honesty/’ 10 
There is no need to repeat here what is said elsewhere in 
the volume. It is proper however to refer in this place to 
the brilliant analysis of the present situation given by 
Professor Reinhold Niebuhr in his address to the con¬ 
ference. 

The Western world, he pointed out, has in recent cen¬ 
turies passed under the sway of a secular culture. Strictly 
speaking, however, there is no such thing as secularism. 
Every explanation of the meaning of human existence im¬ 
plies some kind of faith. The avowedly secular culture of 
today proves on examination to be a pantheistic religion 
which identifies the whole of existence with holiness, or a 
rationalistic humanism which holds the human reason to 
be God, or a vitalistic humanism which worships as God 
some vital force in the individual or the community. The 
religion of modern civilization is in fact a very old religion 
dressed up in new clothes. It is the old religion of self- 
10 See pp. 55 ff. 


26 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

glorification described by St. Paul in the first chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans. As such it is the quintessence of 
human sin. Rationalism forgets that human reason, as well 
as man’s physical existence, is a derived, created, finite real¬ 
ity. It mistakes the image of God in man for God himself. 
It does not realize that the freedom with which man is en¬ 
dowed in his rational nature is the occasion for sin as well as 
the ground of morality. The recent emergence of a more 
explicit type of self-glorification in race and nation repre¬ 
sents the victory of romanticism over rationalism. 

The whole story of modern culture can be interpreted 
in terms of the parable of the prodigal son. Rationalistic 
humanism is the son in the first stages of his emancipation 
from his father. Modern civilization did not want to be 
dependent on a divine Father; it wanted an autonomous 
culture. The more romantic type of modern humanism 
represents a more advanced stage of disintegration. Here 
the son is “ wasting his substance in riotous living ” and 
insisting that any vital energy contains its moral justifica¬ 
tion in itself. The “ mighty famine,” when the son begins 
to be in want, is still in the future; but the catastrophe is so 
certain a consequence of the anarchy of conflicting national 
ambitions that it may well be regarded as part of the con¬ 
temporary picture. 

What we have to preach to this generation is the gospel 
of the cross. It was Roman law, the pride of all pagan 
civilization, and Hebraic religion, the acme of religious 
devotion, which crucified the Lord. The cross thus reveals 
the problem of all human culture and the dilemma of 
every civilization. But while the Christian gospel reveals 
a world which in its ground and in its fulfillment tran¬ 
scends history it does not lift us out of history and its con¬ 
flicts. The gospel which transcends all particular and con- 


Introduction 


27 

temporary social situations can be preached with power 
only by a church which takes its share of those burdens. 
The church cannot therefore evade the responsibility of 
seeking to establish peace and perfect justice. 

While the truths of the Christian gospel are simple and 
clear, it is not easy for any human institution to mediate 
them without pride or hypocrisy. The real difficulty of 
preaching the gospel of God’s mercy to the prodigal son 
whom our modern culture represents lies in the temptation 
to play the part of the elder brother. No Christian church 
has a right to preach to an age which we call secular without 
a contrite recognition of the shortcomings of historic Chris¬ 
tianity, which are one cause of the disavowal by the modern 
age of its Christian faith. It is only too easy for the church, 
like the elder brother, to maintain ostensibly its depend¬ 
ence on the Father but to use this relationship to satisfy a 
sinful egotism. If we ignore or deny the fact that the 
church as an institution is subject to sociological forces and 
pressures and may succumb to the prejudices and illusions 
of the age, the institutional church may itself become the 
expression of the final and most terrible form of human 
sinfulness. The church must not surround with the aura 
of the divine a civilization which is an uneasy compromise 
between the forces of justice and injustice. The forms of 
secularism which confront the church today are not simply 
the religion of self-glorification. They are more than that. 
They combine this sin with a passion for justice which fre¬ 
quently puts the historic church to shame. If the church is 
to preach its gospel effectively it must understand deeply 
this double aspect of the contempory situation. 

(d) The Church and the World. On the subject of 
the relation of the church and the world, considerable 
divergences of view were manifested in the addresses, as 


28 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

might have been expected. We shall note some of the ideas 
expressed without attempting to harmonize them or point 
out how far they complement or contradict one another. 

In discussing the basis of the Christian ethic the Dean of 
St. Paul’s started from the fact that Christianity is a revealed 
religion and consequently something more than the finest 
flower of natural religion. The teaching, the person and 
the work of Christ constitute a revelation of the nature of 
the good life which has the quality of given-ness. In Christ 
God shows us the good. The nature of the good is bound 
up with the concept of the kingdom of God. The kingdom 
is a gift of God and its values are not identical with those of 
secular utopianism. The Christian conception of the good 
is not a kingdom of man but a kingdom of God, and it looks 
to no earthly utopia as its fulfillment, but to a consumma¬ 
tion in the unseen world. 

The conception of the good, however, remains a mere 
form until it is filled with the moral values of the New 
Testament. The Sermon on the Mount and the evangeli¬ 
cal summary of the law are the principles of the kingdom 
of God. These principles cannot be applied directly to life 
in the actual world, since society is organized on principles 
which are largely at variance with the kingdom. Nonethe¬ 
less the individual Christian has the duty of so adjusting 
his conduct that it approximates as closely as possible to 
that ideal conduct which is the norm of the kingdom. The 
Christian also has a standard by which he may measure 
progress. It consists in an advance toward a social order 
in which all persons have the opportunity of development 
in accordance with God’s purpose, in which their relations 
with one another are those described in the Sermon on the 
Mount. 

Both M. Maury and Professor Brunner took a different 
view of the Christian ethic. The former insisted that the 


Introduction 


29 

essential task of the church is not to preach a morality based 
on the order of creation or the principles of the Sermon on 
the Mount, but to proclaim a gospel of salvation. The 
latter maintained that the Christian ethic cannot be identi¬ 
fied with what is sometimes called the ethic of the Sermon 
on the Mount. It might almost be described as its opposite. 
The ethic of that sermon as it is understood for example by 
Tolstoi or in the social gospel is a complete’misunderstand- 
ing of the real Sermon on the Mount. It is a legalistic 
ethic, a principle, a system, which exhausts its energies in 
making demands without mobilizing or creating active 
forces. Nothing is achieved by demanding that people love 
one another or by setting up a social program. What is 
needed is to give man power to achieve the good. Christian 
love is absolute union with the will of God and implies a 
fundamental freedom from all bondage to the world and to 
man — freedom from all laws, schemes and programs. 

The Christian church has no right to lay down a social 
program, because it is not its business to establish any kind 
of system. A system means a law: that is, an attempt to 
establish timeless and abstract norms for the guidance of 
actual life. All legalistic systems ignore the person of the 
agent in his actual situation. It is doubtful whether we 
ought to speak of a Christian ethic at all, since an ethic 
means something which has an independent existence and 
which once for all lays down rules for the various relations 
of life. For Christian faith, however, the good is under¬ 
stood in a way which means that it can never be formulated 
as a fixed program of human action. It becomes intelligi¬ 
ble and possible only in connection with the divine action. 
The truths of dogmatic theology — the knowledge, that is 
to say, of what God is and does and gives — are so closely 
connected with ethical commands that the one cannot exist 
apart from the other. The church has most unfortunately 


30 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

severed this connection. It has set up dogmas which have 
no obvious relation to action, and an ethic separated from 
faith in God’s saving act in redemption. It has too often 
put forward a dogmatic belief which is ethically sterile and 
a legalistic ethic which is severed from faith. A faith which 
is not also obedience is not only incomplete but actually 
harmful, just as action which does not spring from faith is 
sinful. 

It follows that a genuinely Christian ethic is far more 
concerned with persons than with institutions, programs or 
systems. For it, the central question is how sinful man can 
become good. First and foremost, the poisoned sources of 
conduct, the personal center itself must be cleansed, in or¬ 
der that conduct may be purified. What the world needs 
is not in the first instance new institutions, but new men 
and women. This personalism of Christianity must not be 
confused with individualism. True faith is the very oppo¬ 
site of individualism. For genuine faith means being in¬ 
corporated into the body of Christ. The most personal 
kind of faith involves the most universal responsibility. 

That which is distinctively Christian cannot be expressed 
in systems and programs, in orders and institutions, but 
only in personal categories. This does not mean, however, 
that Christian discipleship does not influence institutions 
or that it has not the power to transform them. Christian 
faith can create a new spirit in society and among the na¬ 
tions, as it has done in the days of its power. Institutions 
are meant to serve the growth of truly personal and truly 
social life. It is the task of Christians to mold them in this 
direction. 

Professor Zankov, in an address interpreting the Ortho¬ 
dox conception of the church, emphasized the necessity of 
holding with equal firmness two truths. It is undoubtedly 
the first task of the church to proclaim the word of God and 


Introduction 


3i 

to be the place where the grace of God is mediated. But 
it is no less true that to hear and accept the word of God is 
to obey and fulfill the will of God. Real faith is active. 
It is active in the world and in relation to one’s neighbor. 
An ascetic attitude to the world is an evangelical princi¬ 
ple. But it must not be confused with a false asceticism 
which seeks to escape from the world. Withdrawal from 
the world is in effect to deny that Christ, when he became 
man, entered into history as its meaning and goal, to save, 
to overcome, to win, to sanctify the world. Such a view 
contradicts the fundamental principle of the Orthodox 
Church, which is faith in the cosmic significance of the in¬ 
carnation — the principle of the theosis of the world. Re¬ 
nunciation of the world is not denial of the world. The 
Christian desires to overcome by the grace of God the evil 
in the world and in himself so that the world, and he with 
it, may be set free and sanctified. The church is not a 
refuge from the world, but an affirmation of the world. 
God has set us in the world and given us a definite mission 
in and for the world. 

The concrete task of the church is to lead sinful men into 
the real divine-human community of an absolute love and 
unity which are rooted in God. Its responsibility is to bring 
back the fundamentally perverted relationships of human 
society to their original course of divine-human harmony; 
to turn social life away from its false, perverted, sinful 
values, ideals and aims, and to lead it to the eternal, divine 
values, ideals and aims. This is the true prophetic mission 
of the church in relation to the family, the nation, the state, 
economics and culture. It is not the task of the church to 
take direct action in the social and political spheres. But 
it is its responsibility to judge the prevailing social, politi¬ 
cal and economic ideas and existing institutions in the light 
of the ethical principles of the gospel and to rescue men 


32 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

from the power of demonic forces. The duty of the church 
is to bear persistent witness to the eternal truth regarding 
man’s existence. 

Underlying the external development of social life in its 
various forms is the driving force of a definite attitude of 
mind wherein the divine and the demonic in man are in¬ 
tertwined. It is here that the battle must be fought. The 
demonic forces of the world must be opposed by spiritual 
forces. The fundamental demonic element common to all 
forms of social life is the desire to be absolutely sovereign, 
free from all constraint, wholly self-sufficient. The task 
of the church is to proclaim the kingdom of God in the 
world and in history, and to declare clearly and fearlessly 
the evangelical truth regarding the tasks and limits of the 
different spheres of human life. 

Professor Zankov drew attention to the deep eschato¬ 
logical and apocalyptic strain in Orthodox thought. In 
every area of life we have to do with the reality of evil, the 
activity of which will increase until Christ’s return. Chris¬ 
tians do not reject the world and its goods as themselves 
evil; but they know that everything in this world is tainted 
with sin and consequently their eyes are always turned to¬ 
ward the coming city of God. This eschatological attitude 
of the Orthodox Church is not pessimistic. It is active in 
the world, and the motive power of its activity is love. It 
may be described as a dynamic apocalyptic and an active 
and joyful asceticism. It is a state of being crucified with 
Christ in order to live with him the renewed life. 

In this eschatological tension between cross and resur¬ 
rection it is the task of every true son of the church to bear 
witness for Christ in this world, in all humility and in full 
awareness of the risk which that witness entails. This wit¬ 
ness means both confession and martyrdom. It seems as 
though the Lord of history is again setting Christendom as 


Introduction 


33 

a whole in the situation of the early church in order that it 
may know once more the reality of the tension between the 
cross and the resurrection and confess Christ before the 
world in martyrdom. 

Mr. Paton brought to bear on the problem of the rela¬ 
tion of the church to the world the illuminating experi¬ 
ence of the mission field. The true function and meaning 
of the church is often easier to understand in lands where 
missionary work is still being carried on and where the 
church’s life and development are still relatively simple or 
even primitive. In a typical village community of Chris¬ 
tians in many sections of India, China or Africa a large part 
— even by far the largest part — of life is carried on within 
the organized activities of the church. To these people 
the church is not only a worshiping center; it means educa¬ 
tion, medical help, cooperative credit, rural advance and 
many other things. The Christian community possesses a 
life and fellowship that it expresses not only in worship 
but in the common work of living. 

In the West, on the other hand, the progressive secular¬ 
ization of many of the human activities and services that 
once were within the ambit of church life has brought it 
about that the fellowship of the church has come to be re¬ 
garded solely as a fellowship of worship which has no coun¬ 
terpart in the ordinary life men live in the world. As a 
society and fellowship it is less real than a professional as¬ 
sociation or a trade union. Yet there are few Christian con¬ 
gregations in which there are not men of affairs who in 
their own hearts are troubled about the Christian way of 
acting in commerce and business but who have never 
learned to find help in such matters from other Christian 
men within the church. What, for Western Christians, is 
the counterpart of the little rural credit society in which a 
group of Indian Christians pledge their credit to one an- 


34 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

other in unlimited liability, thereby laying the foundation 
of a better way of living? The speaker confessed that he 
did not know the answer but urged that an answer must 
be found, since the reality of the church, as a fellowship 
truer, deeper, more binding and more real than all others 
on earth, will not be believed in or understood until it 
finds expression within the ordinary social living of men. 

(e) The Function of Lay Christians. This considera¬ 
tion leads naturally to the question of the relation of the 
church’s lay members to the problems which engaged the 
attention of the Oxford Conference. This question held 
a large place in the thinking of the conference and needs to 
be given prominence if the thought of the conference is 
to be understood in its true balance and proportion. One 
has the feeling that some of those who addressed the con¬ 
ference, when they spoke of the function of the church 
were in fact thinking of the function of the Christian min¬ 
istry. It is very plain, however, that if Christian witness is 
to be borne in social and political life it must be through 
the action of the multitude of Christian men and women 
who are actively engaged from day to day in the conduct 
of administration, industry and the affairs of the public 
and common life. 

Dr. Justin Wroe Nixon brought the conference face to 
face with the living men and women, endlessly varied in 
type and interest, with whom the pastor comes into contact 
not only in church but during the week as he participates 
in meetings of businessmen, trade-union members, politi¬ 
cal parties, educational associations and boards of philan¬ 
thropy, and in informal gatherings for recreation. What, 
he asked with a refreshing realism, is the actual state of 
mind of these people? What is the help they need? How 
can their imperfect, often superficial, understanding of the 
Christian faith and of its obligations be clarified, expanded 


Introduction 


35 

and deepened? The acid test of the work of the conference 
is how far it can aid in that practical task. 

In an address by the writer of the present article it was 
pointed out that our thought about the church and its func¬ 
tions has become greatly confused through failure to rec¬ 
ognize with sufficient clearness that the church may be 
regarded from two points of view. It is, on the one hand, 
a society organized for the specific purposes of worship, 
teaching, preaching and the pastoral ministry. As such it 
is distinct from the various forms of association for eco¬ 
nomic, political and cultural ends. On the other hand, 
it is a society of men and women who have been given a 
new understanding of life and have undergone a change 
which affects their whole outlook and behavior and must 
color every action of their lives. It is the first and more 
restricted of these conceptions which tends to dominate 
our thinking and consequently to determine and limit our 
practice. Thus the church has become clericalized in the 
thinking of both clergy and laity, and so we are kept from 
seeing clearly our real problems and from dealing with 
them in the most effective way. In considering the rela¬ 
tion of the church to the social or political order we tend 
to think mainly or exclusively of what the church can do 
in its corporate capacity. By the form of the question we 
restrict enormously and disastrously our possibilities. We 
limit ourselves to the question, What influences can be 
brought to bear on society from without? But the really 
important changes can be effected only from within. The 
conduct of public life, of administration and of industry 
daily involves a multitude of decisions by countless indi¬ 
viduals, and there can be no deep change except by the 
progressive transformation of the insights and motives 
which prompt these decisions. 

The church must avoid the error, on the one hand, of 


36 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

limiting its conception of what it can and ought to do in 
the social and political spheres to what it can do appro¬ 
priately and effectively in its corporate capacity; and, on 
the other hand, of insisting with however much truth that 
it is not its business as an organized society to interfere in 
politics or business, and of remaining content with this 
negative assertion. It must recognize that social life can 
be permeated by Christian motives only through the ac¬ 
tion of those who participate in the conduct of that life, 
that they can discharge this Christian responsibility only 
as members of the church, nourished by its tradition, 
preaching and sacraments, instructed by its teaching and 
supported by its fellowship and prayers, and that, in order 
to do this, they need a kind of help which is not at present 
being given. In order to meet this essential need new 
types of ministry will have to be discovered and developed. 

(f) The Worth and Dignity of Man. Before we con¬ 
clude this article reference must be made to a thought 
which was prominent in more than one of the addresses. 
Professor Brunner, as we have seen, insisted that what is 
distinctive in Christianity can be expressed only in per¬ 
sonal categories. Dr. T. Z. Koo emphasized the danger to¬ 
day of subordinating the claims of personality to material 
ends. Professor Runestam directed attention to the pres¬ 
ent tendencies to devalue man. Not only do economic 
forces and political movements tend to subordinate man to 
the collective life, but even in Christian theology there are 
trends of thought which exalt the race and the nation and 
depreciate the individual, or which so emphasize the tran¬ 
scendence of God as to reduce man to a cipher. 

This last address included an impassioned plea that the 
conference seek above all else a renewal of life in the church 
in lives transformed by God’s Spirit and wholly dedicated 
to his service. The same note was struck in the address by 


Introduction 


37 

Dean Van Dusen 11 and in other addresses. If the living 
meaning of the central affirmations of the Christian faith, 
which has been lost today for multitudes of men and 
women among whom are many of the finest spirits, is to be 
recovered the gospel must not only be preached in word but 
embodied in life. Life has a convincing quality, and in 
lives that are manifestly lived in the power of the unseen 
there is a witness that challenges men as no mere preaching 
can ever do. The mediation of life is always costly. It 
takes place not at the more superficial level of the intellect, 
which occupies itself with ideas, but at the deeper level of 
fundamental attitudes. 

At its first morning session the conference was reminded 
that it met in the shadow of the grim results of unemploy¬ 
ment, with its corroding influence on both body and soul, 
and of the menace and actuality of war. The question was 
asked whether in face of this human need the church had 
anything significant and relevant to proclaim to men. The 
answer, it was suggested, may perhaps be given in another 
question: What can have greater significance for human 
life than the Christian faith in the worth and dignity of 
man? It is a dignity which he possesses in virtue of his 
relation to God. In that relation men find forgiveness and 
peace. They are called to keep alive in the world the torch 
of an unconquerable hope. They are made victors over 
sin and death and bidden to triumph over circumstance. 
They are commissioned as God’s free sons to love righteous¬ 
ness and hate iniquity, to do justice and show mercy. 
There is no question on which the welfare, happiness and 

n This address dealt mainly with the American approach to the tasks 
of the conference. It is unfortunate that a satisfactory summary of it is 
impossible, since it was an illuminating and valuable contribution, more 
particularly in view of what the speaker described as the almost complete 
ignorance among European Christians of the Christian thought and prac¬ 
tice of America. 


38 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

progress of mankind depend to a greater extent than the 
question whether our lives are the plaything of blind and 
meaningless forces, whether we ourselves are the sole source 
of all the values in the world and the arbiters of our own 
destiny, or whether we may believe that at the heart of 
things there exists a love we may trust and a creative will 
with which we may cooperate — the question whether this 
life is all or whether man is made for an eternal destiny. 

Man achieves the end of his being through devotion to 
the truth. The freedom men must claim if they are to 
realize their manhood is freedom to know and obey the 
truth. One of the most serious menaces to mankind’s 
higher life today is the denial of the supreme claims of 
truth and the subordination of these claims to passion and 
self-will. Moreover, the God whom Christians worship is 
the God not only of truth but of righteousness and holiness. 
The historic achievement of the church is that it has created 
in many areas of life a new conscience, and has borne wit¬ 
ness to an eternal truth and right that cannot be set aside by 
human wills. The great question today is whether the 
church can once again render this service to the world and 
evoke and educate a conscience which may help to save 
society from corruption and decay. 

The work of the Oxford Conference is seen in its true 
light when it is viewed as a contribution to the answer to 
that question. The convincing answer, however, must be 
given not by thought but by action. The function of 
thought is to prepare the way and remove the obstacles to 
action. 


6 . THE FUTURE 

An important act of the conference was to approve of 
proposals for the formation of a world council of churches 
which would unite the work of the two movements that 


Introduction 


39 

have been concerned respectively with questions of faith 
and order and with questions relative to the life and work 
of the churches. These proposals 12 were drawn up by a 
committee of thirty-five, the appointment of which was 
approved by the continuation committee of the faith and 
order movement and by the Universal Christian Council 
for Life and Work, as well as by the International Mission¬ 
ary Council and other ecumenical movements. A consulta¬ 
tive group representing the different ecumenical move¬ 
ments was authorized to nominate the committee. A 
glance at the names of its members will show its representa¬ 
tive character. Two facts are remarkable. The first is that 
with the exception of the German members, who were pre¬ 
vented from taking part, all who were asked to serve on the 
committee consented to do so and were able to be present at 
the meeting. The second is that a committee representing 
so many different countries and traditions was able in 
regard to questions of great complexity and difficulty in 
two days to reach complete agreement and to submit to the 
conferences at Oxford and Edinburgh a unanimous report. 

The proposals were approved by the conference at Ox¬ 
ford with only two dissentients, and a resolution concern¬ 
ing them was passed . 13 At the time of writing, the action of 
the Edinburgh Conference in regard to them has not been 
decided. If the plan meets with the approval of the 
churches, they will have at their disposal a more adequate 
organ than heretofore for common thought and, so far as 
may seem to them desirable, common action. Provision 
will have been made for the collection of data from widely 
distributed and varied sources and for the continuous and 
fruitful criticism of particular views by other views. The 
results will be at the service of the individual churches, 

12 For the full text of these proposals see pp. 264 ff. 

is For the text of the resolution see p. 267. 


40 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

which alone have the authority to take decisions and to act. 
They will thus be enabled increasingly to view their tasks 
and the problems with which they have to deal not merely 
in the light of denominational or national considerations 
but from a wider ecumenical standpoint. The new coun¬ 
cil, moreover, if it comes into being, will be a symbol of the 
fact that the Christian church throughout the world is to¬ 
day facing a common task, and also of that unity in loyalty 
to one Head which notwithstanding our unhappy divisions 
is an experienced fact. 

Yet this coming together of the churches in a growing 
mutual understanding and cooperation and this extension 
and deepening among Christians of a consciousness of the 
church as an ecumenical society — attitudes which alone 
can inspire and sustain the church — vitally important as 
they are, form only one of the two poles round which the 
tasks of the future must revolve. There must be an ap¬ 
proach to these tasks also from the opposite end. The 
life of the church throughout the world is far too full, rich 
and infinitely various for the wide range of activities it 
inspires to be related directly to any single center. We 
need not only an increasing sense of the unity of the church 
as a universal society but also an intensification of its life, 
which can manifest itself only in the spontaneous activities 
of individuals and of groups. If there is to be a renewal 
of the life of the church it must find expression in the break¬ 
ing forth of new life in a multitude of different centers. 
There must be a multiplication of “ cells ” — of small, liv¬ 
ing groups of men and women who come together to help 
one another in discovering and fulfilling their Christian 
responsibilities in the home and the neighborhood, in 
civic life, in the professions and in industry, in social service 
and in the political arena. It must be a movement in 
which the initiative and leadership are largely those of lay 


Introduction 


4i 

men and women. Is there any reason, except an unreadi¬ 
ness to pay the price, why every reader of these lines should 
not be a member, or the creator, of one of these “ cells ” ? 

7 - THE LITERATURE OF THE CONFERENCE 

It has already been explained that the conference at 
Oxford was only an incident in a continuing process of 
common ecumenical thinking which both preceded the 
conference and will, we may hope, also follow it. Conse¬ 
quently this volume, containing the reports produced at 
Oxford, is only part of the literature to which this sustained 
effort, which culminated in the Oxford Conference, has 
given birth. For a more comprehensive view of the tasks 
and problems of the church today and of the present state 
of Christian thought regarding them, this volume needs 
to be supplemented by a series of other volumes in which 
some of the results of the intensive ecumenical study during 
the past two or three years have been embodied. 

As part of the preparatory material for the conference, 
a volume on The Church and Its Function in Society by 
Dr. Visser ’t Hooft and the present writer has already been 
published (Willett, Clark and Company). When the pre¬ 
liminary studies were begun it was thought at first that it 
would not be necessary to undertake a special study of the 
church. But it quickly became apparent that the question 
of the church was central to the whole range of studies 
relating to the Oxford Conference. None of the other 
subjects could be fruitfully studied without an understand¬ 
ing of the different conceptions of the church held by dif¬ 
ferent bodies of Christians, and without a thorough ex¬ 
amination of the functions of the church in the social and 
political spheres. The writers of the volume had the ad¬ 
vantage of discussing the subject on two occasions with a 
representative international group. More than a hundred 


42 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

memoranda and letters were received commenting on pre¬ 
liminary drafts. It will thus be evident that a considerable 
ecumenical interchange of thought has contributed to the 
making of the volume. 

Six further volumes gathering up the results of the pre¬ 
liminary studies will be published by Willett, Clark and 
Company in the autumn of the present year. These vol¬ 
umes contain papers by writers in different countries 
and representing different traditions. Nearly all the con¬ 
tributions were circulated for criticism and revised by their 
authors in the light of the comments received. Some of the 
papers have been rewritten two or three times. To repre¬ 
sent every important point of view within the compass of a 
single volume was impossible, and there are a few un¬ 
desired omissions owing to inability to secure in time a 
paper that was sought. The contributions as a whole, 
however, will be recognized to be a remarkably representa¬ 
tive collection and many of them are of unusually high 
quality. They illuminate and enrich, at a multitude of 
points and in a large variety of ways, the contents of the 
present volume and are an almost indispensable supple¬ 
ment to the reports produced at the conference. There has 
been no such opportunity until now of studying in an 
ecumenical setting the grave and pressing questions which 
confront the church today throughout the world. 

The following are the titles of the six volumes: 

THE CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING OF MAN 

Contributors: 

Professor T. E. Jessop (Hull) 

Professor R. L. Calhoun (Yale) 

Professor N. N. Alexeiev (Paris) 

Professor Emil Brunner (Zurich) 

Pierre Maury (Paris) 


Introduction 


43 


Rev. Austin Farrer (Oxford) 

Professor W. M. Horton (Oberlin) 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HISTORY 
Contributors: 

Dr. H. G. Wood (Birmingham) 

Professor C. H. Dodd (Cambridge) 

Dr. Edwyn Bevan 

Dr. Christopher Dawson 

Professor Eugene Lyman (New York) 

Professor Paul Tillich (New York) 

Professor H. Wendland (Heidelberg) 

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE COMMON 
LIFE 

Contributors: 

Nils Ehrenstrom (Geneva) 

Professor Martin Dibelius (Heidelberg) 

The Archbishop of York 

Professor Reinhold Niebuhr (New York) 

Lis. Dr. W. Wiesner (Germany) 

Professor H. H. Farmer (Cambridge) 

Professor John Bennett (Auburn) 

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY 
Contributors: 

Professor Ernest Barker (Cambridge) 

M. Marc Boegner (Paris) 

Dr. S. Zankov (Sofia) 

Professor E. E. Aubrey (Chicago) 

Professor K. S. Latourette (Yale) 

Professor Paul Douglass (Philadelphia) 

Dr. M. Bjorkquist (Sweden) 

Dr. Hans Lilje (Germany) 


44 The Story of the Oxford Conference 

CHURCH, COMMUNITY AND STATE IN RELA¬ 
TION TO EDUCATION 
Contributors: 

Professor F. Clarke (London) 

Professor W. Zenkovsky (Paris) 

Professor Paul Monroe (New York) 

C. E. Morris (Oxford) 

J. W. D. Smith (Edinburgh) 

Professor P. H. Kohnstamm (Holland) 

THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH AND THE WORLD OF 
NATIONS 
Contributors: 

Lord Lothian 

Sir Alfred Zimmern 

Dr. O. von der Cablentz (Berlin) 

John Foster Dulles (New York) 

Rev. V. A. Demant (London) 

Lie. W. Menn (Germany) 

Professor Otto Piper (Wales) 

Professor C. E. Raven (Cambridge) 


A MESSAGE FROM THE OXFORD CONFERENCE 
TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 


T he delegates to the World Conference on Church, 
Community and State, assembled at Oxford from July 
12 to 26, 1937, send at the close of their deliberations the 
following message to the Churches of Christ throughout 
the world: — 

In the name of Christ, greetings. 

We meet at a time when mankind is oppressed with 
perplexity and fear. Men are burdened with evils almost 
insupportable and with problems apparently insoluble. 
Even in countries which are at peace unemployment and 
malnutrition sap men’s strength of body, mind and spirit. 
In other countries war does its “ devil’s work,” and threat¬ 
ens to overwhelm us all in its limitless catastrophe. 

Yet we do not take up our task as bewildered citizens of 
our several nations, asking if anywhere there is a clue to our 
problems; we take it up as Christians, to whom is com¬ 
mitted “ the word of reconciliation,” that “ God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” 

The first duty of the church, and its greatest service to the 
world, is that it be in very deed the church — confessing the 
true faith, committed to the fulfillment of the will of 
Christ, its only Lord, and united in him in a fellowship of 
love and service. 

We do not call the world to be like ourselves, for we are 
already too like the world. Only as we ourselves repent, 
both as individuals and as corporate bodies, can the church 
call men to repentance. The call to ourselves and to the 
world is to Christ. 


45 


46 The Oxford Conference 

Despite our unfaithfulness God has done great things 
through his church. One of the greatest is this, that, not¬ 
withstanding the tragedy of our divisions and our inability 
in many important matters to speak with a united voice, 
there exists an actual world-fellowship. Our unity in Christ 
is not a theme for aspiration; it is an experienced fact. We 
can speak of it with boldness because our conference is an 
illustration of it. We are drawn from many nations and 
from many different communions, from churches with 
centuries of history behind them and from the younger 
churches whose story covers but a few decades; but we are 
one in Christ. 

The unity of this fellowship is not built up from its con¬ 
stituent parts, like a federation of different states. It con¬ 
sists in the sovereignty and redeeming acts of its one Lord. 
The source of unity is not the consenting movement of 
men’s wills; it is Jesus Christ whose one life flows through 
the body and subdues the many wills to his. 

The Christian sees distinctions of race as part of God’s 
purpose to enrich mankind with a diversity of gifts. 
Against racial pride or race antagonism the church must 
set its face implacably as rebellion against God. Especially 
in its own life and worship there can be no place for bar¬ 
riers because of race or color. Similarly the Christian 
accepts national communities as part of God’s purpose to 
enrich and diversify human life. Every man is called of 
God to serve his fellows in the community to which he 
belongs. But national egotism tending to the suppression 
of other nationalities or of minorities is, no less than in¬ 
dividual egotism, a sin against the Creator of all peoples 
and races. The deification of nation, race or class, or of 
political or cultural ideals, is idolatry, and can lead only 
to increasing division and disaster. 

On every side we see men seeking for a life of fellowship 


A Message from the Conference 47 

in which they experience their dependence on one another. 
But because community is sought on a wrong basis, the 
intensity of the search for it issues in conflict and disinte¬ 
gration. In such a world the church is called to be in its 
own life that fellowship which binds men together in their 
common dependence on God and overleaps all barriers of 
social status, race or nationality. 

In consonance with its nature as true community, the 
church will call the nations to order their lives as members 
of the one family of God. The universal church, surveying 
the nations of the world, in every one of which it is now 
planted and rooted, must pronounce a condemnation of 
war unqualified and unrestricted. War can occur only as 
a fruit and manifestation of sin. This truth is unaffected 
by any question of what may be the duty of a nation which 
has to choose between entry upon war and a course which 
it believes to be a betrayal of right, or what may be the duty 
of a Christian citizen whose country is involved in war. 
The condemnation of war stands, and also the obligation 
to seek the way of freeing mankind from its physical, moral 
and spiritual ravages. If war breaks out, then preemi¬ 
nently the church must manifestly be the church, still 
united as the one body of Christ, though the nations 
wherein it is planted fight one another, consciously offering 
the same prayers that God’s name may be hallowed, his 
kingdom come, and his will be done in both, or all, the 
warring nations. This fellowship of prayer must at all 
costs remain unbroken. The church must also hold to¬ 
gether in one spiritual fellowship those of its members who 
take different views concerning their duty as Christian 
citizens in time of war. 

To condemn war is not enough. Many situations con¬ 
ceal the fact of conflict under the guise of outward peace. 
Christians must do all in their power to promote among the 


The Oxford Conference 


48 

nations justice and peaceful cooperation, and the means of 
peaceful adjustment to altering conditions. Especially 
should Christians in more fortunate countries press the 
demand for justice on behalf of the less fortunate. The 
insistence upon justice must express itself in a demand for 
such mitigation of the sovereignty of national states as is 
involved in the abandonment by each of the claim to be 
judge in its own cause. 

We recognize the state as being in its own sphere the 
highest authority. It has the God-given aim in that sphere 
to uphold law and order and to minister to the life of its 
people. But as all authority is from God, the state stands 
under his judgment. God is himself the source of justice, 
of which the state is not lord but servant. The Christian 
can acknowledge no ultimate authority but God; his loyalty 
to the state is part of his loyalty to God and must never 
usurp the place of that primary and only absolute loyalty. 

The church has duties laid upon it by God which at all 
cost it must perform, among which the chief is to pro¬ 
claim the word of God and to make disciples, and to order 
its own life in the power of the Spirit dwelling in it. Be¬ 
cause this is its duty it must do it, whether or not the state 
consents; and the state on its side should recognize the duty 
and assure full liberty for its performance. The church 
can claim such liberty for itself only as it is also concerned 
for the rights and liberties of others. 

In the economic sphere the first duty of the church is to 
insist that economic activities, like every other department 
of human life, stand under the judgment of Christ. The 
existence of economic classes presents a barrier to human 
fellowship which cannot be tolerated by the Christian 
conscience. Indefensible inequalities of opportunity in 
regard to education, leisure and health continue to prevail. 
The ordering of economic life has tended to enhance 


A Message from the Conference 49 

acquisitiveness and to set up a false standard of economic 
and social success. The only forms of employment open to 
many men and women, or the fact that none is open, 
prevent them from finding a sense of Christian vocation in 
their daily life. 

We are witnessing new movements which have arisen in 
reaction to these evils but which combine with their strug¬ 
gle for social justice the repudiation of all religious faith. 
Aware of the reality of sin, the church knows that no change 
in the outward ordering of life can of itself eradicate social 
evil. The church therefore cannot surrender to the uto¬ 
pian expectations of these movements, and their godlessness 
it must unequivocally reject; but in doing so it must recog¬ 
nize that Christians in their blindness to the challenging 
evils of the economic order have been partly responsible for 
the antireligious character of these movements. 

Christians have a double duty — both to bear witness to 
their faith within the existing economic order and also to 
test all economic institutions in the light of their under¬ 
standing of God’s will. The forces of evil against which 
Christians have to contend are found not only in the hearts 
of men as individuals, but have entered into and infected 
the structure of society, and there also must be combated. 
The responsibility of the church is to insist on the true 
relationship of spiritual and economic goods. Man cannot 
live without bread, and man cannot live by bread alone. 
Our human wealth consists in fellowship with God and in 
him with our brethren. To this fellowship the whole 
economic order must be made subservient. 

The questions which have mainly engaged the attention 
of the conference are questions that can be effectively dealt 
with, in practice, only by the laity. Those who are re¬ 
sponsible for the daily conduct of industry, administration 
and public life must discover for themselves what is the 


The Oxford Conference 


50 

right decision in an endless variety of concrete situations. 
If they are to receive the help they need in making respon¬ 
sible Christian decisions new types of ministry will have to 
be developed by the church. 

The fulfillment of the tasks to which the church is called 
today lies largely in the hands of youth. Many loud voices 
are calling on young people to give themselves to political 
and social ideals, and it is often hard for them to hear the 
voice of Jesus Christ who calls them to be servants of the 
eternal kingdom. Yet many of the younger generation, 
often in spite of ridicule and sometimes of persecution, are 
turning to him, and individually as well as in Christian 
youth movements devote themselves to the renewal of the 
life of the churches and to making known the good news 
of Christ by word and action. We rejoice in their brave 
witness. 

In the education of youth the church has a twofold task. 
First, it must be eager to secure for every citizen the fullest 
possible opportunity for the development of the gifts that 
God has bestowed on him. In particular, the church must 
condemn inequality of educational opportunity as a main 
obstacle to fullness of fellowship in the life of the com¬ 
munity. 

While the church is thus concerned with all education it 
has, also, a special responsibility to realize its own under¬ 
standing of the meaning and end of education in the re¬ 
lation of life to God. In education, as elsewhere, if God is 
not recognized he is ignored. The church must claim the 
liberty to give a Christian education to its own children. 
It is in the field of education that the conflict between 
Christian faith and non-Christian conceptions of the ends 
of life, between the church and an all-embracing com¬ 
munity life which claims to be the source and goal of every 


A Message from the Conference 51 

human activity, is in many parts of the world most acute. 
In this conflict all is at stake, and the church must gird 
itself for the struggle. 

As we look to the future it is our hope and prayer that the 
Spirit of God may cause new life to break forth spontane¬ 
ously in a multitude of different centers, and that there 
may come into being a large number of “ cells ” of Chris¬ 
tian men and women associated in small groups for the 
discovery of fresh ways in which they may serve God and 
their fellow men. 

We have deeply felt the absence from our fellowship of 
the churches that have not been represented at the con¬ 
ference. Our hearts are filled with anguish as we remem¬ 
ber the suffering of the church in Russia. Our sympathy 
and gratitude go out to our Christian brethren in Ger¬ 
many; we are moved to a more living trust by their stead¬ 
fast witness to Christ and we pray that we may be given 
grace to bear the same clear witness to the Lord. 

We have much to encourage us since the conference at 
Stockholm twelve years ago. The sense of the unity of the 
church in all the world grows stronger every year. We 
trust that this cause will be yet more fully served by the 
world council of churches, proposals for which have been 
considered by the conference and commended to the 
churches. 

We have tried during these days at Oxford to look with¬ 
out illusion at the chaos and disintegration of the world, 
the injustices of the social order and the menace and horror 
of war. The world is anxious and bewildered and full of 
pain and fear. We are troubled, yet we do not despair. 
Our hope is anchored in the living God. In Christ, and in 
the union of man with God and of man with man, which 
he creates, life even in face of all these evils has a meaning. 


52 The Oxford Conference 

In his name we set our hands as the servants of God, and in 
him of one another, to the task of proclaiming God’s 
message of redemption, of living as his children and of 
combating injustice, cruelty and hate. The church can be 
of good cheer; it hears its Lord saying, “ I have overcome 
the world.” 


THE REPORTS OF THE SECTIONS OF 
THE CONFERENCE 




I. REPORT OF THE SECTION ON CHURCH 
AND COMMUNITY* 


1. THE WORLD TODAY 


he Christian church is called upon to fulfill its mis- 



J. sion today amid a distraught and disunited mankind. 
Divisions and conflicts there have always been, but the 
foundations of communal life in generally accepted systems 
of customs, social distinctions, moral and cultural values 
and religious beliefs have remained sufficiently firm to 
preserve the essential structure of the various communities 
in which men have lived their lives together. Today, how¬ 
ever, as probably only once or twice before in human his¬ 
tory, the foundations themselves are shaken. Traditional 
pieties and loyalties and standards of conduct have lost 
their unquestioned authority; no new ones have taken their 
place. As a result, the community life of mankind has 
been thrown into confusion and disintegration. Though 
more marked in some sections of mankind than in others 
these facts are in some measure universal. This social 
disunity is reflected in the life of the individual man or 
woman, whose personal destiny is largely bound up with 
his relation to the community. When society “ goes to 
pieces ” the individual tends also to “ go to pieces ” in suf¬ 
fering, frustration and a baffled sense of the futility and 
meaninglessness of his existence. 

* The report, after receiving the approval of the section, was submitted 
to the conference substantially in its present form. The conference received 
the report, referred it back to the section for revision in the light of the 
discussion and commended it to the serious and favorable consideration of 
the churches. The report was revised by the section and approved by it 
in its present form. 


55 


The Oxford Conference 


56 

In many countries vigorous attempts are being made to 
restore social unity by drastic control and regimentation 
and by making national or class unity the supreme good 
to take precedence of all else. These attempts bear witness 
to the truth of what has just been said and to the primal 
need of human life as God has made it for community and 
fellowship. 

In the midst of such a world, torn and disrupted and 
feverishly seeking a way out of its troubles, the church of 
Jesus Christ has to preach its message and fulfill its task. 
What is it to say? How is it to act? What are individual 
Christians to believe and to do? 

2. THE CALL TO THE CHURCH 

The church is under obligation to proclaim the truth 
that the disintegration of society has one root cause. 
Human life is falling to pieces because it has tried to 
organize itself into unity on a secularistic and humanistic 
basis without any reference to the divine will and power 
above and beyond itself. It has sought to be self-sufficient, 
a law unto itself. Nor is there any hope in the ascription of 
sacred quality to nation or state or class. A false sacred, a 
false God, merely adds demonic power to the unredeemed 
passions of men. Though bringing about temporary and 
local unity it prepares for mankind an even worse and 
wider conflict. The recall to God in penitence must stand 
first. 

Yet how shall men know who and what God is, and what 
it is of which they must repent, and in what new direction 
they must walk, and whence they may find strength to 
walk therein? The answer to these questions God himself 
has given in the revelation of his will and supremely in 
Jesus Christ. In God is the secret of true unity among men 
and in Christ is revealed the secret of God. The first task 


Church and Community 


57 

of the church, now as always, is to make known the gospel, 
and to assert the claim of Jesus Christ as the incarnate 
Word of God to the lordship of all human life. 

The modern world, however, has never been wholly 
without the preaching of the gospel. Dare we ascribe its 
present plight solely to its willful rejection of the word of 
life and of the things which belong to its peace? Nay, is 
not the modern situation God’s call to a church 1 which 
has been content to preach the redeeming word without the 
costly redeeming deed? Has it taken the trouble to make 
plain to itself or to the world the meaning of its redeeming 
word for the daily life of mankind? What reason has the 
church given the world to believe that it possesses the 
secret of true community in him whom it preaches and 
whom it professes to serve? The life of the church is deeply 
infected with the very ills from which humanity suffers. 
The divisions and the conflicts of mankind have been 
reproduced and even justified within its own borders. 
Again and again Christian groups have persecuted and 
sought to destroy one another and with equal guilt have 
persecuted men of other faiths, and this is still happening 
today. The church’s recall of the world to the feet of 
Christ must be preceded by the recall of itself. The church 
is under call to confess its sin and to seek anew from God 
forgiveness and the cleansing of its life. 

But there is peril in these general propositions, true as 
they may be. The call to Christians to repent and submit 
their lives anew to God in Christ has to be obeyed in the 
midst of the concrete realities of the common life, where 
decisions have to be taken and acts with all their irrevocable 
consequences done. Perplexities and problems at once 
arise. They press the more heavily the more earnestly the 

1 In this document, where the church as an institution is referred to 
organized Christianity and not the una sancta is meant. 


The Oxford Conference 


58 

Christian believer seeks to bring everything in his life into 
the obedience of Christ. 

The difficulties arise in the main because the Christian 
finds himself called upon at every point to act in relation 
to systems or frameworks of life which partake of both good 
and evil; they are of God and yet also of human sin. The 
orders of family, community, people, nation, are part of the 
God-given basis and structure of human life without which 
the individual would have no existence at all; yet man’s 
sin — his pride, greed, fear, idolatry — has infected them 
all. Hence the Christian who has seen the perfect will of 
God in Christ and would serve that will in the midst of his 
fellow men finds himself in perpetual tension and conflict. 
He accepts thankfully his community in order to live and to 
work in it and for it; yet if he would work in it and for it 
for Christ he must be in continuous protest against it. 

The difficulty of deciding how far in particular instances 
the Christian should go in cooperation with ways of life 
which are in greater or less degree contrary to God’s will 
is often great, and the danger of self-deception is always 
present. No general principle of guidance can be laid 
down. That the ways of the community or nation may 
reach such a pitch of evil that there is no option for the 
church but to repudiate them altogether, and even at times 
refuse cooperation with them, can hardly be questioned in 
view of contemporary events; but just where that point is 
must be left to the guidance of the Spirit. This, however, 
must be said: The church is under obligation never to lose 
sight of its one supreme calling to bear costing witness, in 
deed as well as in word, to the higher way of life in Christ. 
Where it must join in what it feels to be a partial approach 
to the perfect will of Christ, it must keep its spirit sensitive 
and humble by continual acknowledgment before God of 
the sin of mankind which is wresting the gifts of God to 


Church and Community 


59 

evil ends, and in which it is itself implicated. This is the 
tragic and continuous tension in which the church is always 
placed, the tension between the pure ideals of the kingdom 
and the unredeemed community of men in which it has to 
live and bear its witness. But so soon as it seeks peace by 
becoming unconscious of that tension then it is traitorous 
to its Master and Lord. 

Three problems in the church’s relation to the commu¬ 
nity today urgently demand attention. 

(a) The Church and the National Community (Volk ). 
The church comes to men never as isolated individuals. 
Every man is born into a specific national community and 
is united to it by strong ties. The church regards this fact 
of nationality, in spite of its infection by human sinfulness, 
as essentially a gift of God to mankind. 

The love of the Christian for his people should therefore 
be part of his gratitude to God for the riches which are his 
through the community into which he has been born. 
The primary call on the loyalty and service, both of the 
church and of the individual Christian believer, will be, 
as a rule, the community in which God has set him. Every 
church should regard itself as a church for the whole 
people. This means that it accepts its place in the com¬ 
munity life and acknowledges its responsibility, along with 
all other Christian bodies, to reach all members of the 
community, in relation to every aspect of their life, with the 
pure message of the gospel. It does not mean that it sub¬ 
ordinates itself to the national life. 

As with every divine gift, the gift of national community 
has been and is being abused by men and made to serve sin. 
Any form of national egotism whereby the love of one’s 
own people leads to the suppression of other nationalities 
or national minorities, or to the failure to respect and ap- 


6o 


The Oxford Conference 


preciate the gifts of other people, is sin and rebellion 
against God, who is the Creator and Lord of all peoples. 
Even more, to see in one’s own nation the source and stand¬ 
ard of saving revelation, or in any way to give the nation 
divine status, is sin. This is to be utterly repudiated and 
irreconcilably opposed by the Christian conscience in the 
name of God and for the sake of the nation it is called to 
serve. Further, the church is called to be watchful that 
these evils, or the world views by which they are supported, 
do not enter within its own life, destroying its fellowship 
and corrupting the pure word of the gospel of Jesus Christ 
which has been entrusted to it . 2 

(b) The Church and Race. Even deeper are distinc¬ 
tions of race. The existence of black races, white races, 
yellow races, is to be accepted gladly and reverently as full 
of possibilities under God’s purpose for the enrichment of 
human life. And there is no room for any differentiation 
between the races as to their intrinsic value. All share 
alike in the concern of God, being created by him to bring 
their unique and distinctive contributions to his service in 
the world. 

Here again, however, the gift can be and is abused. 
The sin of man asserts itself in racial pride, racial hatreds 
and persecutions and in the exploitation of other races. 
Against this attitude in all its forms the church is called by 
God to set its face implacably and to utter its word un¬ 
equivocally both within and without its own borders. 

Moreover, it is a first responsibility of the church to dem¬ 
onstrate within its own fellowship the reality of community 
as God intends it. It is commissioned to call all men into 
the church, into a divine society that transcends all national 
and racial limitations and divisions. In the services of wor- 

2 In view of the immediate urgency of this problem a supplementary 
declaration is appended at the end of this report. 


Church and Community 


61 


ship, in its more informal fellowship, in its organization 
and in the hospitality of the Christian home, there can be 
no place for exclusion or segregation because of race or 
color. “ There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, 
for ye are all one in Christ.” To allow the church’s lines of 
action to be determined by racial discrimination denies the 
gospel whose proclamation is its task and commission. 

(c) The Church and the Common Life. There is an 
urgent call to the church today to re-establish close relation¬ 
ships with the common life of the people in the midst of 
which it is called upon to work. The word of God must 
not only be preached; at any cost it must be made actual. 
Indeed only as it is thus being made actual can it be said to 
be completely preached. Today men are often more likely 
to criticize the church than to criticize Christianity; this 
is due in no small part to the fact that the church has lost 
touch with the everyday activities and problems which fill 
men’s lives. To the outsider the church appears to be a 
society of people interested in a specialized activity which 
does not need and does not engage the interest of all. Re¬ 
ligion is just one activity among many for those who are 
inclined that way. Men see no necessary relation between 
the moral struggles of society and the gospel of Christ. The 
church is not wholly to blame for this situation, since many 
spheres of the common life in which it once took the lead¬ 
ing part have now been taken over by the community or 
by the state. But these changes only challenge the church 
to seek new areas and new means for the redemption of the 
common life. 

3. SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 

There is a call from God today 

(1) To every local congregation, to realize at any cost 
in its own self that unity, transcending all differences and 


62 


The Oxford Conference 


barriers of class, social status, race and nation, which we 
believe the Holy Spirit can and will create in those who 
are ready to be led by him. 

(2) To different churches in any district, to come to¬ 
gether for a local ecumenical witness in worship and work. 

(3) To all Christians, to a more passionate and costly 
concern for the outcast, the underprivileged, the perse¬ 
cuted and the despised in the community and beyond the 
community. The recrudescence of pitiless cruelty, hatreds 
and race discriminations (including anti-Semitism) in the 
modem world is one of the major signs of its social disin¬ 
tegration. To these must be brought not the weak rebuke 
of words but the powerful rebuke of deeds. Thus the 
unity of the church is advanced. The church has been 
called into existence by God not for itself but for the world. 
Only by going out of itself in the work of Christ can it find 
unity in itself. 

(4) More specifically to the church, to extend its con¬ 
cern to the particular areas of life where existing conditions 
continuously undo its work and thwart the will of God for 
his children — conditions such as misunderstanding be¬ 
tween old and young, tension between men and women, 
health, housing, employment, recreation, in both their dis¬ 
tinctive rural and urban forms. Thus the church seeks to 
express God’s concern for every man in his own neighbor¬ 
hood and vocation. 

(5) To the church, to undertake new social experi¬ 
ments, especially in local communities, through which the 
general level of conscience may be raised. 

(6) To the church, to play a healing and reconciling 
part in the conflicts, misunderstandings or hatreds which 
arise between interests or classes within the local commu¬ 
nity or the nation. 

(7) To the church, to encourage authoritative study of 
mooted problems in such areas as race and industry and to 


Church and Community 63 

draw together Christians of different races and groups for 
united study, fellowship and action. 

(8) To Christian men and women in the same vocation 
or industry, to meet together for prayerful discussion as to 
how in their particular sphere of the common life the prob¬ 
lems which arise can be dealt with as God would require. 

(9) To members of the Christian church, to be ready 
to undertake responsibilities in local and national govern¬ 
ment. The church should seek to guide and support these 
its representatives in their efforts to solve the problems by 
which they are faced in the light of Christian principles. 

(10) To all Christians, to seek by simplicity and disci¬ 
pline in personal living to go beyond the accepted stand¬ 
ards of the community in the love revealed in Christ. 

Finally, there is laid upon the Christian church in all 
lands the obligation to create and to foster among all its 
branches and among all its members solidarity and coop¬ 
eration, which are stronger than all the divisions which 
now disrupt the family of mankind. The ecumenical 
movement which has found expression in the conference 
at Oxford should become an integral part in the life of 
every church, every local congregation and every individ¬ 
ual Christian. To help to create it, to support it, to de¬ 
velop it, is a solemn responsibility to God who so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son for its sin. Thus 
shall be plainly manifested to mankind in its chaos and 
division something of that peace and order of brotherly 
love which come only from God and from Jesus Christ his 
Son, our Lord. 

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT 3 

(1) “ God wills all men to be saved.” Therefore he 
has in Christ come to us, and therefore he has established 


3 See note on p. 60. 


The Oxford Conference 


64 

his church among us to proclaim the message of salvation 
through Christ for all nations. The church has the only 
all-decisive source for its message about God and his will 
in the revelation of God in Christ. 

(2) As Christians we consider our membership in a dis¬ 
tinct community (Volk) as a divine gift. The love of a 
Christian for his people is also his gratitude toward God 
for the gift thereby given to him. 

(3) In order to fulfill its task the church takes its place 
in the community (Volk) wherein human life is lived. 
This does not mean the subordination of the church to the 
national life, but the effective fulfillment of its task to reach 
all members of the community with the gospel pure and 
undefiled. 

(4) Every kind of national egotism, where the love of 
one’s own nation leads to the suppression of other nation¬ 
alities (minorities), is sin and rebellion against God, the 
Lord of all nations. 

(5) The deification of one’s own people is sin against 
God. “ Thou shalt have none other God but me.” To 
see in one’s own people (in one’s own blood) the saving 
revelation of God is anti-Christian. “ Neither is there sal¬ 
vation in any other: for there is none other name under 
heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved.” 


II. REPORT OF THE SECTION ON CHURCH 
AND STATE * 


introduction: 

1. PURPOSE OF THE MEMORANDUM 

I t is not the purpose of the following memorandum to set 
forth an abstract doctrine of the relation of church and 
state either in sociological, legal or theological form, but to 
express the Christian’s attitude toward the secularization 
of modem society and the growing power of the state, 
phenomena which present problems to the intelligence of 
Christians and lay burdens upon their consciences. 

The purpose of this memorandum is to inquire what 
problems the existing situation presents to Christians both 
in their individual and in their corporate capacity, and 
to distinguish those principles and duties which determine 
the Christian attitude toward the state in all circumstances 
from the various applications of those principles and duties 
which are relevant to the different historical situations. 

standpoint: 

2. FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS 

We speak as Christians, that is, ( a ) as members of the 
church as the body of Christ, the universal supra-national 
fellowship which he has called into being through his word 

* The report, after receiving the approval of the section, was submitted 
to the conference substantially in its present form. The conference received 
the report, referred it back to the section for revision in the light of the 
discussion and commended it to the serious and favorable consideration of 
the churches. The report was revised by the section and approved by it 
in its present form. 

65 


66 


The Oxford Conference 


and Spirit, or, in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, the holy, 
catholic church; and ( b ) as members of the many par¬ 
ticular churches — congregational, denominational, na¬ 
tional, free or established — or other forms of Christian 
society in which the life of the one church finds varying 
expression. 1 

It follows (a) that our witness must be based upon the 
revelation which God has given us in Jesus Christ and in 
conformity with his word in the Scripture; and ( b ) that as 
human beings subject to the limitations of finiteness and 
the guilt of sin, we share responsibility for the evils of our 
time and must approach the subject of our relation to the 
state in a spirit of repentance. 

We recognize that, both as members of individual 
churches and as members of the church universal, we are 
related to the particular states of which we are members, 
not only directly — as, e.g., by establishment or concordat 
— but primarily through the people of whom the state, 
whatever may be its constitutional structure, is the political 
organ. It follows that the special duties and responsibil¬ 
ities of the church with reference to the state are condi¬ 
tioned by all the aspects of the social life of man, economic, 
cultural, etc., with which church and state alike have 
to do. 

We recognize the existing states as historically given re¬ 
alities, each of which in the political sphere is the highest 
authority, but which, as it stands itself under the authority 
and the judgment of God, is bound by his will and has the 
God-given aim of upholding law and order, of ministering 
to the life of the people united within it or of the peoples 
or groups so united, and also of making its contribution to 
the common life of all peoples. 

i We recognize that, in addition to these uses, the word “ church ” is 
often loosely used to denote individual Christians or groups of Christians. 


Church and State 


67 

At the same time we recognize that the state as a specific 
form and the dominating expression of man’s life in this 
world of sin, by its very power and its monopoly of the 
means of coercion often becomes an instrument of evil. 
Since we believe in the holy God as the source of justice, 
we do not consider the state as the ultimate source of law 
but rather as its guarantor. It is not the lord but the servant 
of justice. There can be for the Christian no ultimate au¬ 
thority but very God. 

The state so defined has a dual relationship to the church, 
both as an order within which Christians have to live and 
witness for Christ; and as an institution which by its actions 
may either promote or hinder the mission of the church, in 
relation to which therefore the church in differing his¬ 
torical situations may be called to take differing positions 
of cooperation, criticism, or opposition, and this both in its 
corporate capacity and as a fellowship of witnessing Chris¬ 
tians acting as individuals or as groups. 

3. THE PRESENT SITUATION WITH REFERENCE TO CHURCH 
AND STATE 

While the principles which define the Christian attitude 
toward the state remain always the same, their application 
has constantly varied in different countries and ages, not 
only because of changes in the organization and policy of 
different states but because of similar changes in different 
branches of the church. In any discussion of the relation 
of church and state, therefore, the historical situation must 
always be considered. 

In the course of history church and state have taken very 
different attitudes toward each other, varying from the 
most intimate combination to complete indifference or 
antagonism. At the present time also their relations differ 
widely. 


68 


The Oxford Conference 


Furthermore, we have to distinguish among (a) states 
and countries with a predominantly Christian population; 
(b) states and countries with a population chiefly or at 
least largely de-Christianized; ( c ) states and countries with 
a non-Christian civilization where Christianity appears as 
the religion of a minority. We must distinguish also be¬ 
tween churches which either completely or to a certain ex¬ 
tent are organized independently of the state, and churches 
which are established. 

There are two facts characteristic of the present situation 
which lay upon the church the duty of reconsidering its re¬ 
lation to the state and redefining its practical attitude. 
These are, first, the growing de-Christianization of society; 
second, the widespread tendency of the state to control the 
totality of human life in all its individual and social aspects, 
combined with the tendency to attribute absolute value to 
the state itself, to the national community, to the dominat¬ 
ing class or to the prevailing cultural form. 

4. THE CHURCH’S NEED OF REPENTANCE AND 
RECONSECRATION 

The supreme duty of the churches in all countries as they 
face the present situation in the world of states and nations 
is to repent before God, not only by corporate acts of re¬ 
pentance, but by awakening the spirit of repentance in all 
their members: repentance for things done and things left 
undone. Judgment must begin at the house of God. If 
as Christians we are deeply disquieted by the political de¬ 
velopment of our age and our time, we have to acknowl¬ 
edge a large share of responsibility. We have not lived up 
to the word of our Lord: “Ye are the salt of the earth and 
the light of the world.” We have not expressed our faith 
in the redeeming cross of Christ in terms of our social rela¬ 
tions. We have accepted without clear protest existing so- 


Church and State 


69 

cial divisions. In like manner we recognize that churches 
have at times substituted for the true totalitarianism of 
Christ, which requires that every activity and every rela¬ 
tion be subject to the will of God, a forced totalitarianism 
political in character. They have too often been far more 
concerned for their own security and prestige in this world 
than for fulfilling their Lord’s commission and serving 
mankind in the spirit of self-sacrificing love. Today with 
deep humility we acknowledge our share in this guilt. 

With repentance must go reconsecration. Penitence, if 
sincere, must bear fruit in action. We therefore resolve by 
God’s grace to do our utmost to prevent the repetition of 
such sins in the future; to discharge our duties as citizens 
in the spirit of Christian love; and so far as in us lies, to 
create a spirit which will enable the state to fulfill its God- 
given task of maintaining justice and ministering to the 
welfare of the people. 

principles: 

5. THE DISTINCTIVE FUNCTIONS OF CHURCH AND OF STATE 

The church as the trustee of God’s redeeming gospel and 
the state as the guarantor of order, justice, and civil liberty 
have distinct functions in regard to society. The church’s 
concern is to witness to men of the realities which outlast 
change because they are founded on the eternal will of God. 
The concern of the state is to provide men with justice, 
order and security in a world of sin and change. As it is 
the aim of the church to create a community founded on 
divine love, it cannot do its work by coercion, nor must it 
compromise the standards embodied in God’s command¬ 
ments by surrender to the necessities of the day. The state, 
on the other hand, has the duty of maintaining public or¬ 
der, and therefore must use coercion and accept the limits 
of the practicable. 


70 The Oxford Conference 

The distinctive character of the church’s activity is the 
free operation of grace and love. The distinctive character 
of the state’s activity, whatever its constructive function in 
cultural and social life may be, is the power of constraint, 
legal and physical. In consequence there are certain social 
activities which clearly belong to the church and others 
which clearly belong to the state; there are, however, still 
others which may be performed by either church or state. 
In this area tension is unavoidable and solutions will vary 
in varying historical circumstances. It is true that our 
Lord told his disciples to render to Caesar the things that 
are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. But it is 
God who declares what is Caesar’s. Therefore, whatever 
the choice may be, the Christian must always, whether as a 
member of the church or as a citizen, obey the will of God. 

6 . DUTIES OF THE CHURCH TO THE STATE 

The primary duty of the church to the state is to be the 
church, namely, to witness for God, to preach his word, to 
confess the faith before men, to teach both young and old 
to observe the divine commandments, and to serve the na¬ 
tion and the state by proclaiming the will of God as the 
supreme standard to which all human wills must be subject 
and all human conduct must conform. These functions of 
worship, preaching, teaching and ministry the church can¬ 
not renounce whether the state consent or not. 

From this responsibility certain duties follow for the 
churches and for their members. 

(a) Duties with Reference to the Individual State. 
These duties are (a) that of praying for the state, its people 
and its governments; ( h ) that of loyalty and obedience to 
the state, disobedience becoming a duty only if obedience 
would be clearly contrary to the command of God; ( c) that 
of cooperation with the state in promoting the welfare of 


Church and State 


the citizens and of lending moral support to the state when, 
it upholds the standards of justice set forth in the Word of 
God; ( d ) that of criticism of the state when it departs from 
those standards; ( e ) that of holding before men in all their 
legislation and administration those principles which make 
for the upholding of the dignity of man who is made in 
the image of God; (/) that of permeating the public life 
with the spirit of Christ and of training up men and 
women who as Christians can contribute to this end. 

These duties rest upon Christians not only as individuals 
redeemed by Christ who must witness for him in whatever 
position they may occupy in the state, but also upon the 
church as a Christian community. The church can serve 
the state in no better way than by illustrating in its own 
life the kind of life which is God’s will for society as a 
whole. Only in the measure that it seeks to realize this 
mission is it in a position to rebuke the state for its sins 
and failures for which both individual Christians and the 
church in its organized capacity have been in no small 
measure responsible. 

(b) Duties with Reference to the State in Its Relations 
to Other States. In the interpretation of these duties it is 
important to keep constantly in mind that as the church in 
its own sphere is a universal society, so to Christian faith 
the individual state is not itself the ultimate political unit, 
but a member of a family of nations with international re¬ 
lations and duties which it is the responsibility not only 
of the individual Christians but also of the churches to 
affirm and to promote. 

7. THE FREEDOM OF THE CHURCH 

In a state which is Christian by profession it is self- 
evident that the church should be free to the fullest extent 
to fulfill its function. It should also be evident that where 


The Oxford Conference 


72 

in such a state there are majority and minority churches 
the same essential liberty to carry out the church’s function 
should be enjoyed by minorities as well as by the majority. 
All churches should renounce the use of the coercive power 
of the state in matters of religion. Membership in a minor¬ 
ity church should not be a reason for denying full civil and 
political equality. 

In a state which acknowledges a liberal doctrine of rights 
it is equally evident that the church like other associations 
should have the liberty which its function requires. In 
countries where the church finds in the theory and con¬ 
stitution of the state nothing on which to base a claim to 
right, this does not absolve the church from its primary 
duty of witness. This duty must then include a witness 
against such a denial of fundamental justice. And if the 
state tries to hinder or suppress such witness, all other 
churches have the duty of supporting this church and giv¬ 
ing it the utmost succor and relief in their power. 

We recognize as essential conditions necessary to the 
church’s fulfillment of its primary duty that it should en¬ 
joy: (a) freedom to determine its faith and creed; ( b ) free¬ 
dom of public and private worship, preaching and teach¬ 
ing; ( c ) freedom from any imposition by the state of 
religious ceremonies and forms of worship; ( d ) freedom to 
determine the nature of its government and the qualifica¬ 
tions of its ministers and members and, conversely, the 
freedom of the individual to join the church to which he 
feels called; ( e ) freedom to control the education of its 
ministers, to give religious instruction to its youth and to 
provide for adequate development of their religious life; 
(/) freedom of Christian service and missionary activity, 
both home and foreign; (g) freedom to cooperate with 
other churches; ( h ) freedom to use such facilities, open to 


Church and State 


73 

all citizens or associations, as will make possible the ac¬ 
complishment of these ends: the ownership of property 
and the collection of funds. 

The freedom essential for the church can in fact exist 
both in churches organized as free associations under the 
general laws of a country and in churches established in an 
organic or other special connection with the state. If, how¬ 
ever, this connection should result in impairing the 
church’s freedom to carry out its distinctive mission, it 
would then become the duty of its ministers and members 
to do all in their power to secure this freedom, even at the 
cost of disestablishment. 

8. THE PRESENT TASKS OF THE CHURCH 

What then follows from this survey as to the present 
tasks and opportunities of the churches? This at least, that 
it is their duty: 

(1) To summon their own members to repentance, 
both as individuals and as organized bodies, for their sins 
of omission and of commission and to pray for the spirit 
of consecration which shall make of them, both in their 
separate and in their united activities, agents which God 
may use for his purpose in the world. 

(2) To create within the local community, the nation, 
and the world such agencies of cooperative action as shall 
make it possible for them to discharge effectively such tasks 
as can be done in common. 

(3) To summon their individual members in their sev¬ 
eral callings — not only clerical but also lay members, men 
and women — to cooperate with the state in such con¬ 
structive tasks as may be for the good of the whole. 

(4) To guard for all churches, both as groups of witness¬ 
ing Christians and in their organized capacity, the oppor- 


The Oxford Conference 


74 

tunity of worship, of witness, of service, and of education 
which is essential to their mission, and this not for their 
own sake only, but for the sake of the states. 

(5) To follow with sympathetic interest the fortunes of 
those, Christians and non-Christians, who are victims of 
cruelty and oppression, and to do what they can to secure 
for them a treatment compatible with the dignity of their 
human personality as children of God. 

(6) To renounce publicly and forever the use of all 
forms of persecution, whether by Christians against other 
Christians or by Christians against adherents of other re¬ 
ligions. 


III. REPORT OF THE SECTION ON CHURCH, 
COMMUNITY AND STATE IN RELATION TO 
THE ECONOMIC ORDER * 

1 . the BASIS OF THE CHRISTIAN CONCERN FOR THE 


ECONOMIC ORDER 


he Christian church approaches the problems of the 



JL social and economic order from the standpoint of her 
faith in the revelation of God in Christ. In the life and 
death of our Lord, God is revealed as a just God who con¬ 
demns sin and as a merciful God who redeems sinners. 
The nature and will of God as thus revealed form the basis 
of human existence and the standard of human conduct. 
The chief end of man is to glorify God, to honor and love 
him, in work and life as in worship. This love involves the 
obligation to love our neighbors as ourselves, a second com¬ 
mandment which Jesus declared to be like unto the first. 

This love of neighbor is an obligation which rests partly 
upon the native worth and dignity of man as made in the 
image of God. In all systems of morality this obligation is 
to a greater or less degree recognized. Christianity, how¬ 
ever, recognizes that the image of God in man is so defaced 
by sin that man’s native worth and dignity are largely ob¬ 
scured. For this reason it must be emphasized that our 
obligation to the neighbor springs not so much from our 
recognition of man’s native dignity as from the Christian 

* This report was the first to be presented to the full conference and was 
submitted in shorter form. The conference received the report, referred it 
back to the section for revision in the light of the discussion and com¬ 
mended it to the serious and favorable consideration of the churches. The 
report was revised and expanded by the section and approved in its present 
form by all the members present at the final meeting of the section. 


75 


The Oxford Conference 


7 6 

revelation of God’s purpose to restore that dignity through 
the redemption that is in Christ. The obligation is there¬ 
fore a duty toward God and continues to be operative even 
when the neighbor does not obviously demand or deserve 
respect. We must love our fellow men because God loves 
them and wills to redeem them. 

The kingdom of God, as proclaimed in the gospel, is the 
reign of God which both has come and is coming. It is an 
established reality in the coming of Christ and in the pres¬ 
ence of his Spirit in the world. It is, however, still in con¬ 
flict with a sinful world which crucified its Lord, and its 
ultimate triumph is still to come. In so far as it has come, 
the will of God as revealed in Christ (that is, the com¬ 
mandment of love) is the ultimate standard of Christian 
conduct. Standards drawn from the observation of human 
behavior or prompted by immediate necessities are not 
only less complete than the commandment of love but fre¬ 
quently contain elements that contradict it. In so far as 
the kingdom of God is in conflict with the world and is 
therefore still to come, the Christian finds himself under 
the necessity of discovering the best available means of 
checking human sinfulness and of increasing the possibil¬ 
ities and opportunities of love within a sinful world. 

The relative and departmental standard for all the so¬ 
cial arrangements and institutions, all the economic struc¬ 
tures and political systems, by which the life of man is or¬ 
dered is the principle of justice. Justice, as the ideal of a 
harmonious relation of life to life, obviously presupposes 
the sinful tendency of one life to take advantage of another. 
This sinful tendency it seeks to check by defining the right¬ 
ful place and privilege which each life must have in the 
harmony of the whole and by assigning the duty of each 
to each. Justice does not demand that the self sacrifice itself 
completely for the neighbor’s good, but seeks to define and 


The Economic Order 


77 

to maintain the good which each member of the com¬ 
munity may rightfully claim in the harmony of the whole. 

The principle of justice has both a positive and a nega¬ 
tive significance. Negatively, principles of justice restrain 
evil and the evildoer. They must therefore become em¬ 
bodied in systems of coercion which prevent men from 
doing what sinful ambition, pride, lust and greed might 
prompt them to do. This necessary coercion is itself a 
root of new evils, since its exercise involves power and 
power tempts the possessor to its unrighteous use. Fur¬ 
thermore, coercion may rouse resentment among those co¬ 
erced even when its purpose is a necessary social end. The 
use of power and coercion cannot therefore be regarded 
by Christians as ultimately desirable. Criticism against its 
abuses must be constantly maintained. On the other hand, 
it cannot be assumed that the practice of Christian love will 
ever obviate the necessity for coercive political and eco¬ 
nomic arrangements. 

The laws of justice are not purely negative. They are 
not merely “ dikes against sin.” The political and eco¬ 
nomic structure of society is also the mechanical skeleton 
which carries the organic element in society. Forms of pro¬ 
duction and methods of cooperation may serve the cause of 
human brotherhood by serving and extending the prin¬ 
ciple of love beyond the sphere of purely personal relations. 

The commandment of love therefore always presents pos¬ 
sibilities for individuals beyond the requirements of eco¬ 
nomic and social institutions. There is no legal, political 
or economic system so bad or so good as to absolve indi¬ 
viduals from the responsibility to transcend its require¬ 
ments by acts of Christian charity. Institutional require¬ 
ments necessarily prescribe only the minimum. Even in 
the best possible social system they can only achieve gen¬ 
eral standards in which the selfishness of the human heart 


The Oxford Conference 


78 

is taken for granted and presupposed. But the man who is 
in Christ knows a higher obligation which transcends the 
requirements of justice — the obligation of a love which 
is the fulfillment of the law. 

The love which is the fulfillment of the law is, how¬ 
ever, no substitute for law, for institutions or for systems. 
Individual acts of charity within a given system of govern¬ 
ment or economics may mitigate its injustices and increase 
its justice. But they do not absolve the Christian from 
seeking the best possible institutional arrangement and so¬ 
cial structure for the ordering of human life. Undue em¬ 
phasis upon the higher possibilities of love in personal re¬ 
lations, within the limits of a given system of justice or an 
established social structure, may tempt Christians to allow 
individual acts of charity to become a screen for injustice 
and a substitute for justice. Christianity becomes socially 
futile if it does not recognize that love must will justice and 
that the Christian is under an obligation to secure the best 
possible social and economic structure, in so far as such 
structure is determined by human decisions. 

The relation of the commandment of love to the justice 
of political and economic systems is twofold. It is an ideal 
which reaches beyond any possible achievements in the 
field of political relations, but it is nevertheless also a stand¬ 
ard by which various schemes of justice may be judged. 
In attempting to deal with political and economic prob¬ 
lems, the Christian must therefore be specially on his guard 
against two errors. 

The one is to regard the realities of social justice incorpo¬ 
rated in given systems and orders as so inferior to the law 
of love that the latter cannot be a principle of discrimina¬ 
tion among them but only a principle of indiscriminate 
judgment upon them all. This error makes Christianity 
futile as a guide in all those decisions which Christians, 


The Economic Order 


79 

like other people, must constantly be making in the po¬ 
litical and economic sphere. Practically, it gives the ad¬ 
vantage to established systems as against the challenge of 
new social adventures and experiments; for it tempts Chris¬ 
tians to make no decisions at all, and such efforts to reserve 
decision become in practice decisions in favor of the status 
quo. 

The other error is to identify some particular social sys¬ 
tem with the will of God or to equate it with the kingdom 
of God. When conservatives insist on such an identifica¬ 
tion in favor of the status quo, they impart to it a dangerous 
religious sanction which must drive those who challenge it 
into a secular revolt against religion itself. If, on the other 
hand, this identification is made in the interests of a new 
social order, it will lead to the same complacency which the 
critic deprecates in the old social situation. Every tend¬ 
ency to identify the kingdom of God with a particular so¬ 
cial structure or economic mechanism must result in moral 
confusion for those who maintain the system and in dis¬ 
illusionment for those who suffer from its limitations. The 
former will regard conformity with its standards as iden¬ 
tical with the fulfillment of the law, thus falling into the 
sin of pharisaism. The latter will be tempted to a cynical 
disavowal of the religion because it falsely gives absolute 
worth to partial values and achievements. Both errors are 
essentially heretical from the point of view of Christian 
faith. The one denies the reality of the kingdom of God 
in history; the other equates the kingdom of God with the 
processes of history. In the one case, the ultimate and 
eternal destiny of human existence, which transcends his¬ 
tory, is made to support an attitude of indifference toward 
historical social issues; in the other case, the eternal destiny 
of human existence is denied or obscured. The law of love 
which is the standard of the Christian life is properly to be 


8o 


The Oxford Conference 


regarded as being at the same time a present reality and an 
ultimate possibility. It is not only a criterion of judgment 
in all the fateful decisions which men must make in history, 
but also an indictment against all historical achievements. 

As a criterion of judgment upon the relative merits of 
economic arrangements and social structures, the law of 
love gives positive guidance in terms of justice, even though 
it transcends the realities of all possible social structures. 
The obligation to love our neighbors as ourselves places 
clearly under condemnation all social and economic sys¬ 
tems which give one man undue advantage over others. 
It must create an uneasy conscience (for example) in all 
Christians who are involved in a social system which denies 
children, of whatever race or class, the fullest opportunity 
to develop whatever gifts God has given them and makes 
their education depend upon the fortuitous circumstance 
of a father’s possession or lack of means to provide the 
necessary funds. It must challenge any social system which 
provides social privileges without reference to the social 
functions performed by individuals, or which creates lux¬ 
ury and pride on the one hand and want and insecurity on 
the other. It makes the conscience of Christians particu¬ 
larly uneasy in regard to the deprivation of basic security 
for large masses of human beings. 

2. ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT ECONOMIC SITUATION 

There is today no one economic order which ecumeni¬ 
cal Christianity faces. The government of the U.S.S.R., 
for example, exercises jurisdiction over one-sixth of all the 
land surface of the globe, on which lives one-twelfth of 
the world’s population, including — it has been estimated 
— one-fifth of the population of the industrialized world. 
The economic and social structure of this huge territory 
is fundamentally different from that prevailing elsewhere. 


The Economic Order 


81 


Again, national socialist Germany and fascist Italy have 
evolved economic systems each of which differs in impor¬ 
tant respects from those of other so-called capitalist coun¬ 
tries. And between the types of capitalism which are evolv¬ 
ing in democratic states — the Scandinavian countries, 
France, the United States, Great Britain, etc. — there are 
also differences of a highly important kind. The amount, 
for instance, of social and industrial legislation which has 
been passed in Great Britain, and the extent to which trade 
unions have for many years been recognized there, make 
the economic system of that country very different from 
that found in the United States. For the present purpose 
it seems wise to concentrate attention on what can broadly 
be described as the capitalist economic system, though it 
must always be borne in mind not only that this phrase is 
liable to be dangerously misleading but also that a large 
part of the world lies outside its ambit. 

The present economic situation in the countries under 
consideration is a product of the emancipation of the in¬ 
dividual from the social and cultural restrictions of the 
Middle Ages. In so far as the spirit and the institutions of 
the feudal order and of the guild system had restrained, in 
spite of their religious and cultural creativity, the free de¬ 
velopment of human potentialities, the dawning of the 
capitalist age must be considered a definite step forward 
in the progress of humanity. This is true of the intellectual 
as well as of the political and economic achievements of 
that age. The system of free enterprise is responsible for 
that industrial development which, for the first time in 
human history, has made it possible to overcome the natu¬ 
ral scarcity of economic resources by successive technologi¬ 
cal improvements. Despite the vast increase of the world’s 
population, it has raised to a considerable degree the gen¬ 
eral standard of consumption. By the mechanization of 


82 


The Oxford Conference 


industry it has reduced the physical labor of the manual 
workers. For the first time in history it has brought all 
parts of the world into interdependence with one another 
and has made the idea of the unity of mankind a fact of 
common experience. 

It was thought at one time that the development of this 
new economic order would not only improve the mate¬ 
rial conditions of life but would also establish social jus¬ 
tice. This expectation was rooted in the belief that a pre- 
established harmony would so govern the self-interest of 
individuals as to create the greatest possible harmony in 
society as a whole. “ Each man, seeking his own, would 
serve the commonweal.” Today this belief is largely dis¬ 
credited. The attempt of human reason to create an au¬ 
tonomous and universal culture has resulted in a variety 
of independent and specialized cultural activities which 
are not related to any one organizing principle and which 
consequently lack that unity which we believe can be real¬ 
ized only through the penetration of the whole by the spirit 
of religion. The absence of this spiritual center from the 
economic order has involved the progressive dissipation of 
the spiritual inheritance of Western life. The same forces 
which have produced material progress have often en¬ 
hanced inequalities, created permanent insecurity and sub¬ 
jected all members of modern society to the domination of 
so-called independent economic “ laws.” The competitive 
superiority of large-scale production has gone far to de¬ 
stroy the old traditional society of craftsmen and farmers 
and thereby has created a society which is characterized in 
many countries by the concentration of wealth on the one 
hand and the existence of large urban masses on the other. 
The progressive mechanization of industry has periodically 
thrown large numbers of workers into long periods of 
unemployment. The cycle of industrial fluctuations has 


The Economic Order 83 

caused a tremendous waste of productive power and, in 
consequence, “ poverty in the midst of plenty.” 

At the same time the human side of economic life has 
been profoundly affected. Broadly speaking, capitalistic 
production has not escaped the danger of treating human 
labor as a commodity to be bought at the lowest possible 
price and to be utilized to the greatest possible extent. The 
predominance of the profit motive has tended to deprive 
the worker of the social meaning of his work and has en¬ 
couraged hostility between the members of different groups 
in their economic relationships. 

In the course of the nineteenth century the worst evils 
which accompanied the rise of capitalism were mitigated 
in the more advanced industrial nations. There was a 
rapid growth in the population of the industrialized part 
of the world, and the constant expansion of markets in in¬ 
dustrially undeveloped countries reduced the social and 
economic pressure in the industrialized countries. These 
trade outlets made it possible to satisfy many of the de¬ 
mands of the poorer sections of the community by the in¬ 
crease of real wages and by social legislation in various 
fields. Under social and political pressure the various gov¬ 
ernments of the Western world enacted laws providing for 
graduated taxation and for old-age pensions, sickness and 
accident insurance, etc. The success of the trade unions 
and the cooperative movement helped also in this process 
of mitigation of social evils. 

But industrial expansion and technical progress have 
tended to defeat their own ends. In place of free trade and 
free competition, which were characteristic principles of 
the earlier expansionist period of capitalism, protectionist 
measures were adopted by the state and monopolies were 
established in many fields of economic enterprise. One of 
the causes of this change lay in the fact that formerly 


The Oxford Conference 


84 

“ backward ” and colonial nations had become industrial 
competitors. The consequent contraction of markets ac¬ 
centuated the competition of nations for the remaining 
markets of the world. Through this development, the 
earlier stage of competitive capitalism has been gradually 
replaced by a monopolistic stage, and this economic change 
has brought with it corresponding political consequences. 
On the one hand, the economic process has been increas¬ 
ingly subjected to state control and interference; and on 
the other hand leading industrial and financial groups have 
been tempted to obtain the support of the state for their 
particular interests, and the original ideal of modern de¬ 
mocracy has thus in practice become increasingly difficult 
to achieve. 

The World War and its economic consequences have 
accelerated and accentuated these tendencies, not only 
within the economy of particular nations but also in the 
relationship of state to state. As the former outlets for eco¬ 
nomic expansion have become progressively more narrow, 
the fundamental tensions of the capitalistic economic or¬ 
der are becoming increasingly manifest to our generation. 
The older tendency toward free competition remains a 
factor in all Western nations and contends against the new 
tendency toward monopoly and state control. Out of this 
conflict social and economic systems have emerged in the 
different nations which contain elements of both tenden¬ 
cies in varying proportions. 

While the agrarian population participated in the bene¬ 
fits of capitalistic expansion in the latter nineteenth cen¬ 
tury, the recent mechanization of agricultural production 
has also drawn predominantly agrarian areas in many parts 
of the world into a rapid process of transformation. 

This brief survey would be incomplete without calling 
attention to the effect of capitalistic development upon 


The Economic Order 85 

countries, such as China and India, which had not been 
active participants in the process. Their observation of 
the process in other nations and their reaction to economic 
exploitation by capitalistic powers have prompted a wide¬ 
spread demand for radical social change through which the 
benefits of industrialization might be secured and the evils 
from which the industrialized nations of the West are suf¬ 
fering might be avoided. 

A consequence of this development of capitalism was 
the rise of socialism and communism. These movements 
represent a protest against the evil results of the capitalist 
economic order from those who suffered chiefly from it. 
In several countries this protest allied itself with a radical 
denial of Christianity, the church and belief in God. This 
denial is partly due to the fact that the churches had be¬ 
come deeply involved in the social and cultural attitudes 
of the wealthier members of society, upon whom they were 
frequently dependent politically and economically. As the 
churches did not detach themselves from these alliances a 
disastrous chasm opened between those who were strug¬ 
gling for social justice but on nonreligious or antireligious 
grounds, and those who stood for the Christian faith but 
did not seem to recognize existing injustices. This is one 
of the reasons why victorious communism persecutes the 
Christian churches, denounces religion as a tool of reaction 
and seeks to eradicate it; and why in other countries the 
ruthless persecution of communists and socialists is either 
tolerated without protest or supported by Christians and 
churches. ^ 

Facing this situation the Christian churches must first 
of all acknowledge and repent for their blindness to the 
actual situation; for this blindness is partly responsible for 
such hostility as exists between themselves and the radical 
movements which aim at social justice. The churches must 


86 


The Oxford Conference 


not regard an attack directed against themselves as an at¬ 
tack directed against God. They must acknowledge that 
God has spoken to their conscience through these move¬ 
ments by revealing through them the real situation of mil¬ 
lions of their members. On the other hand, the churches 
must continue resolutely to reject those elements in the 
actual development of communism which conflict with the 
Christian truth: the utopianism which looks for the fulfill¬ 
ment of human existence through the natural process of 
history and presupposes that improvement of social insti¬ 
tutions will automatically produce improvement in human 
personalities; the materialism which derives all moral and 
spiritual values from economic needs and economic condi¬ 
tions and deprives the personal and cultural life of its crea¬ 
tive freedom; and, finally, the disregard for the dignity of 
the individual in which communism may differ theoreti¬ 
cally, but does not differ practically, from other contem¬ 
porary totalitarian movements. 

3. POINTS AT WHICH THE CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING 
OF LIFE IS CHALLENGED 

At the beginning of this part of the report attention 
should be called to the potentialities for good in the eco¬ 
nomic order. Situations vary in different parts of the 
world but in many countries it already seems possible, 
through the full utilization of the resources of the new 
technology and through the release of human productive 
power, to remove the kind of poverty which is crippling to 
human personality. There is a sense in which poverty is 
a relative matter and hence in any situation would be pres¬ 
ent in some form; but we are thinking of the poverty which 
would be regarded in any age as denying the physical neces¬ 
sities of life. The abolition of such poverty now seems to 
depend on the human organization of economic life, rather 


The Economic Order 87 

than on factors given in nature or on what might be called 
the inevitable constitution of every economic order. But 
the possibility of economic “ plenty ” has this moral im¬ 
portance, that to an increasing extent it makes the persist¬ 
ence of poverty a matter for which men are morally re¬ 
sponsible. This possibility marks off our time from the 
period of the New Testament and from other periods in 
which Christian thinking about economic life has been 
formulated. In the light of it the direction of Christian 
effort in relation to the economic order should henceforth 
be turned from charitable paternalism to the realization of 
more equal justice in the distribution of wealth. More¬ 
over, Christians who live in the more privileged geographi¬ 
cal areas must recognize that the securing of economic 
plenty and greater justice in its distribution within their 
respective national groups is not the whole of their duty 
in this connection; they cannot escape some measure of 
responsibility for those areas where for years to come there 
will doubtless be desperate economic need. 

It seems to us that the moral and spiritual nature of man, 
according to the Christian understanding of that nature, 
is affronted by the assumptions and operation of the eco¬ 
nomic order of the industrialized world in four respects to 
which we wish to draw special attention. 

(a) The Enhancement of Acquisitiveness. That eco¬ 
nomic order results, in the first place, in a serious danger 
that the finer qualities of the human spirit will be sacrificed 
to an overmastering preoccupation with a department of 
life which, though important on its own plane, ought to 
be strictly subordinated to other more serious aspects of 
life. We are warned by the New Testament that riches 
are a danger to their possessors, and experience would ap¬ 
pear to confirm that diagnosis. It is not possible to serve 
both God and Mammon. When the necessary work of 


88 


The Oxford Conference 


society is so organized as to make the acquisition of wealth 
the chief criterion of success, it encourages a feverish 
scramble for money, and a false respect for the victors in 
the struggle which is as fatal in its moral consequences as 
any other form of idolatry. In so far as the pursuit of 
monetary gain becomes the dominant factor in the lives of 
men, the quality of society undergoes a subtle disintegra¬ 
tion. That such a society should be the scene of a perpet¬ 
ual conflict of interests, sometimes concealed, sometimes 
overt, between the economic groups composing them, is 
not surprising. Men can cooperate only in so far as they 
are united by allegiance to a common purpose which is 
recognized as superior to their sectional interests. As long 
as industry is organized primarily not for the service of the 
community but with the object of producing a purely finan¬ 
cial result for some of its members, it cannot be recognized 
as properly fulfilling its social purpose. 

(b) Inequalities. The second feature of the economic 
system which challenges the conscience of Christians is the 
existence of disparities of economic circumstance on a scale 
which differs from country to country, but in some is shock¬ 
ing, in all considerable. Not only is the product of indus¬ 
try distributed with an inequality so extreme (though the 
extent of this inequality also varies considerably from coun¬ 
try to country) that a small minority of the population are 
in receipt of incomes exceeding in the aggregate those of 
many times their number, but — even more seriously — 
the latter are condemned throughout their lives to environ¬ 
mental evils which the former escape, and are deprived of 
the opportunities of fully developing their powers which 
are accessible, as a matter of course, to their more fortunate 
fellows. It is no part of the teaching of Christianity that 
all men are equally endowed by nature or that identical 
provision should be made for all, irrespective of difference 


The Economic Order 89 

of capacity and need. What Christianity does assert is that 
all men are children of one Father, and that, compared with 
that primary and overwhelming fact, the differences be¬ 
tween the races, nationalities and classes of men, though 
important on their own plane, are external and trivial. 
Any social arrangement which outrages the dignity of man 
by treating some men as ends and others as means, any in¬ 
stitution which obscures the common humanity of men by 
emphasizing the external accidents of birth or wealth or 
social position, is ipso facto anti-Christian. 

One aspect of the matter deserves special emphasis. 
Whatever their differences on other subjects, Christians 
cannot be in doubt as to the primary duty of insuring that 
the conditions required for full personal development are 
enjoyed by the whole of the rising generation. In some 
countries that obligation receives fuller recognition than 
in others, but of few, if any, can it be said that equal oppor¬ 
tunities of physical and mental growth are available for 
all. It is still the case, even in some of the wealthy nations 
of western Europe, that large numbers of children undergo 
grave injury to their health before they reach the age of 
school attendance, though the methods by which such in¬ 
jury can be prevented are well known; that the education 
given them at school is often, owing to reluctance to spend 
the sums required, gravely defective in quality; that many 
of them are plunged prematurely into full-time work in 
industry, where too often they are employed under condi¬ 
tions injurious both to their characters and to their physi¬ 
cal well-being; and that diversities of educational provision 
correspond to differences of income among parents rather 
than of capacity among children. It often happens that 
these disadvantages are greatly increased where economic 
opportunities are denied on racial grounds. This racial 
discrimination is seen in various forms: a double standard 


The Oxford Conference 


90 

of wages; the inability of members of certain races, what¬ 
ever their competence may be, to rise above a certain level 
of responsibility in their respective callings; their exclu¬ 
sion in some circumstances from labor unions; and the 
refusal to admit members of some racial groups to occupa¬ 
tions reserved for members of the dominant race. 

(c) Irresponsible Possession of Economic Power. A 
third feature of the existing situation which is repugnant 
to the Christian conscience consists in the power wielded 
by a few individuals or groups who are not responsible to 
any organ of society. This gives the economic order in 
many countries some resemblance to a tyranny, in the 
classical sense of that term, where rulers are not account¬ 
able for their actions to any superior authority represent¬ 
ing the community over whom power is exercised. At the 
top of this hierarchy are the leaders of the world of finance, 
whose decisions raise and lower the economic temperature. 
Below them are the controllers of certain great key indus¬ 
tries, the conduct and policy of which vitally affect the lives 
of millions of human beings. Below them again are a mass 
of economic undertakings, large and small, the masters of 
which exercise power over the few hundred or few thou¬ 
sand persons dependent on each of them. The power 
which these latter wield is qualified at many points by 
trade unionism and by the law. On the whole, however, 
the action both of trade unionism and of the state has been 
confined hitherto to establishing and maintaining certain 
minimum standards. Almost the whole field of economic 
strategy, which in the long run determines what standards 
can be maintained, escapes their control. 

Economic like political autocracy is attended doubtless by 
certain advantages. However, it is liable to produce both 
in individuals and in society a character and an outlook on 
life which it is difficult to reconcile with any relationship 


The Economic Order 91 

that can be described as Christian. It tends to create in 
those who wield authority, and in the agents through whom 
they exercise it, a dictatorial temper which springs not 
from any defect of character peculiar to them but from the 
influence upon them of the position they occupy. The 
effect of excessive economic power on those over whom it 
is exercised is equally serious. Often it makes them servile; 
fear of losing their jobs, and a vague belief that in the end 
the richer members of society always hold the whip hand, 
tends to destroy their spiritual virility. Often, again, it 
makes them bitter and cynical; they feel that force, not 
justice, rules their world, and they are tempted to dismiss 
as insincere cant words which imply a different view. 

(d) The Frustration of the Sense of Christian Vocation. 
A profound conflict has arisen between the demand that 
the Christian should be doing the will of God in his daily 
work, and the actual kinds of work which Christians find 
themselves forced to do within the economic order. With 
regard to the worker and employee, there is the fact that 
most of them are directly conscious of working for the profit 
of the employer (and for the sake of their wages) and only 
indirectly conscious of working for any public good; while 
this fact may in some cases be only part of the mechanism 
by which the work is done for the public good, the difficulty 
in some degree remains. Again, there is the fact that at 
present many workers must produce things which are use¬ 
less or shoddy or destructive. Finally, one other form of 
work which seems clearly to be in conflict with the Chris¬ 
tian’s vocation is salesmanship of a kind which involves de¬ 
ception — the deception which may be no more than in¬ 
sinuation and exaggeration, but which is a serious threat 
to the integrity of the worker. 

But even more serious is the constant threat of unem¬ 
ployment. This produces a feeling of extreme insecurity 


The Oxford Conference 


92 

in the minds of masses of the people. Unemployment, es¬ 
pecially when prolonged, tends to create in the mind of the 
unemployed person a sense of uselessness or even of being 
a nuisance, and to empty his life of any meaning. This 
situation cannot be met by measures of unemployment as¬ 
sistance, because it is the lack of significant activity which 
tends to destroy his human self-respect. 

4. CHRISTIAN DECISIONS IN RESPONSE TO THIS CHALLENGE 

It was pointed out in the first section of this report that 
the message of the gospel is not addressed, as has sometimes 
been suggested, to the individual alone. Christianity is 
emphatically a social religion. Its teaching is directed to 
men not as units isolated from their fellows but as members 
of groups and communities. It insists that the only life in 
which human beings can find peace and happiness is that 
of service and self-sacrifice. It asserts that the relations of 
men to one another are part of their relation to God. It 
emphasizes that, if the former are not what the Christian 
conscience would approve, then the latter necessarily share 
their corruption. “ If a man love not his brother whom he 
hath seen, how shall he love God whom he hath not seen? ” 

These relations are, of course, of many different kinds. 
But in the case of the majority of men they are determined 
more directly and more continuously by the action of eco¬ 
nomic interests than by any other single force. It is clearly 
the duty of Christians, therefore, to test by the canons of 
their faith not merely their individual conduct and the 
quality of their private lives, but also the institutional 
framework of organized society. In so far as they are true 
to their creed, they cannot either take the economic sys¬ 
tem for granted or dismiss it as irrelevant to the life of the 
spirit. They are bound to require it to present its moral 
credentials; to examine those credentials in the light of 


The Economic Order 


93 

Christian doctrine as to the nature of God and man; and, 
in so far as the system fails to satisfy that criterion, to use 
every effort to amend or to supersede it. If detachment is 
incumbent on Christians in reaching their conclusions, 
courage in stating and energy in acting on them are no 
less among their duties. 

Whatever agreements may be reached by Christians con¬ 
cerning their responsibility for seeking to eradicate those 
features of the economic order which challenge the Chris¬ 
tian conscience, it is an historic fact, which we can hardly 
expect to obviate in the future, that men who belong to 
the Christian church and who are united by common reli¬ 
gious convictions differ in the conception and in the exe¬ 
cution of their political obligations. The profoundest dif¬ 
ference at the present time in many countries seems to be 
between those who believe that the challenges to the Chris¬ 
tian faith outlined in the previous section can be met 
within the framework of a system of private enterprise, and 
those who demand the supplanting of that system by one 
primarily based upon the social ownership of the means of 
production. But even within these two general divisions 
of opinion, other differences of great importance about the 
precise means of improving the present system, or about 
the tempo and the degree of reconstruction needed, have 
revealed themselves in the work of this conference. These 
differences are an accurate reflection, we believe, of simi¬ 
lar differences in the whole church. 

These differences are of course partly differences of judg¬ 
ment such as honest minds face in any realm of human de¬ 
cision. But it must be recognized also that differences in 
political opinion are partly derived from the varying cir¬ 
cumstances — economic, geographic and historical — which 
help to condition human judgments. Human judgments 
upon issues in which our own lives are involved are natu- 


The Oxford Conference 


94 

rally less impartial than those which concern purely objec¬ 
tive problems. The very recognition of this fact within 
the church might well mitigate the extremism to which 
each group is tempted. If those who are comparatively 
secure recognize the temptation to complacency which this 
security implies, the temper of the insecure may speak to 
their conscience and not merely excite their temper. On 
the other hand, the proponents of a new social system are 
always tempted to identify every existing evil with the 
particular social organization in which it expresses itself. 
They find it difficult to disassociate perennial human sin¬ 
fulness from particular historic forms of it. They are fur¬ 
thermore tempted to a hatred toward the representatives of 
a given social order which is not justified by the facts, since 
evils in it are only partly willed and partly the inevitable 
consequence of a given social situation which good men 
may mitigate but not overcome. Thus there are at least 
two attitudes toward political and economic problems 
which seem to be definitely incompatible with member¬ 
ship in the Christian church: the complacent defense of 
exclusive privilege on the one hand, and unteachable and 
self-righteous fanaticism on the other. 

Among the various proposals for reform or reconstruc¬ 
tion of the economic system several deserve special men¬ 
tion here. Within terms of the present system, the various 
proposals may be generally reduced to two: (a) Those 
which look toward exerting a greater degree of social and 
political control upon, and demanding a greater degree of 
social responsibility from, the holders of great economic 
power. ( b ) Those which seek to equalize the inequalities 
of economic society by heavy taxation on the one hand and 
by social legislation on the other. Every modern indus¬ 
trial nation has adopted these two social policies to a greater 
or less degree. A third policy, that of seeking to prevent 


The Economic Order 


95 

the centralization of power by government destruction of 
monopoly and by government support of small farmers, 
small traders, etc., is less popular in all industrial nations 
than it was some decades ago. All these policies point to a 
recognition that the chief dangers of a system of private 
enterprise are irresponsible power and inequality. 

Among those who believe in the transformation or re¬ 
construction of a system of private enterprise to one of 
social ownership, there are wide varieties of conviction on 
the means and tempo of this process of reconstruction. 
There is a general hope that this can be done by gradual 
process and through the resources of democratic political 
forms. Nevertheless some feel that, however desirable it 
may be to make all social decisions through the democratic 
process, there is no way of guaranteeing the acquiescence of 
minorities, upon which the democratic process depends. 
They point out that in moments of great social crisis every 
society must deal with the possibility that minorities, 
whether conservative or radical, may defy rather than sub¬ 
mit to the will of the majority. But recent Russian his¬ 
tory offers such telling examples of the danger of irrespon¬ 
sible political power, supplanting irresponsible economic 
power when the democratic control of power is destroyed, 
that the determination of the nations which still possess 
democratic forms to preserve and maintain them has been 
greatly reinforced. 

There remains among proponents of social ownership a 
wide variety of opinion on the degree of socialization of 
property required by a technical civilization. Most gen¬ 
erally it is the basic industries and the natural resources for 
which such socialization is demanded. The socialization 
of land, of retail trade and of small industry finds fewer 
proponents, though the first is an issue wherever feudal 
forms of landownership and tenantry are still in existence. 


The Oxford Conference 


96 

There are certain social proposals which fall between 
the policy of maintaining the system of private property 
and that of socializing it. Chief among these are the pro¬ 
posals for the socialization of money and credit and for the 
extension of the principle of cooperation through volun¬ 
tary cooperative enterprises. Both of these have secured 
particularly strong support among Christian people on the 
ground that they offer the opportunity of eliminating the 
evils of the present system in a more thoroughgoing fash¬ 
ion while they involve less social conflict and tension. The 
question which the first proposal must answer is whether 
money and credit are more organically related to property 
than it assumes. The second proposal must answer the 
question whether cooperatives, which have thus far devel¬ 
oped only in the realm of consumers’ goods, can affect in 
any way the problems of heavy industry. 

All of these proposals involve technical issues upon 
which technical evidence varies, and it is therefore impos¬ 
sible to claim a moral obligation in support of any of them. 
There is always the possibility that new institutions will 
reintroduce ancient evils in a new form or substitute new 
evils for those which have been abolished. Such a question 
involves technical problems on which Christians as Chris¬ 
tians are not competent to pronounce. It would be well 
however for Christians to beware lest the weight which is 
accorded to technical evidence in the support or rejection 
of any one proposal be determined by the particular bias 
of the social group to which they belong. 

The Christian church is a fellowship in Christ which 
transcends differences of judgment and divergences of ac¬ 
tion in relation to the concrete economic situation. Fur¬ 
ther, if only Christians are brought to repentance in the 
light of the Christian message, they can never maintain 


The Economic Order 


97 

that attitude of fanatical hatred toward members of other 
groups which is now so common in the world. They and 
their opponents are both sinners in the presence of God, 
and the recognition of this fact, in social as well as in per¬ 
sonal terms, would itself be a great constructive contribu¬ 
tion toward moderating the bitterness of the struggle be¬ 
tween social groups. 

5. CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN RELATION 
TO THE ECONOMIC ORDER 

We stated in the third section of this report the special 
points at which there is a conflict between the present eco¬ 
nomic order and the Christian understanding of life. In 
the next section we pointed out the kind of social decisions 
which have to be made by all Christians as citizens. 

But it is not enough to say that these problems are chiefly 
the responsibility of Christian individuals or Christian lay 
groups and leave the matter there. The further question 
must be raised: What guidance can those who must make 
these decisions concerning the economic order receive from 
their Christian faith? That question places great responsi¬ 
bility upon those in the church who have the task of inter¬ 
preting the meaning of Christian faith. In this work of 
interpretation the clergy should have a specially important 
contribution to make, but that contribution must be made 
with understanding of the experience of laymen. It is im¬ 
portant that whenever this Christian guidance is crystal¬ 
lized in the reports and pronouncements of official church 
bodies, or of such a conference as the Oxford Conference, 
laymen should share with the clergy this task of formula¬ 
tion. These laymen should come from various economic 
groups. This section of the report will be an attempt to 
formulate the kind of guidance which it is now possible to 


98 The Oxford Conference 

receive from Christian faith for economic life. We are 
here dealing directly with what the teaching of the church 
as a church should be concerning the economic order. 

We must begin by recognizing that there are some fac¬ 
tors in economic life which are more clearly within the 
province of the church and concerning which more light 
can be gained from the Christian message than others, and 
that there are many matters of judgment in particular situa¬ 
tions which involve chiefly expert knowledge. Recogniz¬ 
ing, then, the importance of attempting to mark out as 
clearly as possible the precise areas within which the Chris¬ 
tian can expect to receive light from the Christian faith 
and within which the teaching of the church as church in 
regard to economic life should be carried on, we proceed 
to suggest three such areas. In presenting these areas we 
are suggesting what might be the framework of the Chris¬ 
tian message in relation to the economic order in the next 
decade. 

(1) Christian teaching should deal with ends, in the 
sense of long-range goals, standards and principles in the 
light of which every concrete situation and every proposal 
for improving it must be tested. It is in the light of such 
ends and principles that the four characteristics of the 
existing economic order discussed in section two stand out 
as challenges to the Christian church. There are differ¬ 
ences in theory concerning the way in which these ends are 
related to the Christian faith. Some would be very careful 
not to call these ends Christian and yet they would recog : 
nize that they are ends which Christians should seek in 
obedience to God. 

We suggest five such ends or standards, by way of ex¬ 
ample, as applicable to the testing of any economic situa¬ 
tion. 

(a) Right fellowship between man and man being a 


The Economic Order 


99 

condition of man’s fellowship with God, every economic 
arrangement which frustrates or restricts it must be modi¬ 
fied— and in particular such ordering of economic life 
as tends to divide the community into classes based upon 
differences of wealth and to occasion a sense of injustice 
among the poorer members of society. To every member 
of the community there must be made open a worthy means 
of livelihood. The possibilities of amassing private ac¬ 
cumulations of wealth should be so limited that the scale 
of social values is not perverted by the fear and the envy, 
the insolence and the servility, which tend to accompany 
extreme inequality. 

(b) Regardless of race or class every child and youth 
must have opportunities of education suitable for the full 
development of his particular capacities, and must be free 
from those adventitious handicaps in the matter of health 
and environment which our society loads upon large num¬ 
bers of the children of the less privileged classes. In this 
connection, the protection of the family as a social unit 
should be an urgent concern of the community. 

(c) Persons disabled from economic activity, whether 
by sickness, infirmity or age, should not be economically 
penalized on account of their disability, but on the con¬ 
trary should be the object of particular care. Here again 
the safeguarding of the family is involved. 

(d) Labor has intrinsic worth and dignity, since it is 
designed by God for man’s welfare. The duty and the right 
of men to work should therefore alike be emphasized. In 
the industrial process, labor should never be considered a 
mere commodity. In their daily work men should be able 
to recognize and fulfill a Christian vocation. The work¬ 
ingman, whether in field or factory, is entitled to a living 
wage, wholesome surroundings and a recognized voice in 
the decisions which affect his welfare as a worker. 


lOO 


The Oxford Conference 


(e) The resources of the earth, such as the soil and min¬ 
eral wealth, should be recognized as gifts of God to the 
whole human race and used with due and balanced con¬ 
sideration for the needs of the present and future genera¬ 
tions. 

The implications of even one of these standards, seri¬ 
ously taken, will involve drastic changes in economic life. 
Each one of them must be made more definite in terms of 
the problems which face particular communities. 

Closely connected with the foregoing paragraphs is the 
whole question of property—so closely indeed that any 
action on the part of the community which affects property 
rights will also affect the application of the standards men¬ 
tioned. This is a sphere in which Christian teaching on 
ends and principles in relation to economic life could 
have immediate results if it were translated into actual 
economic decisions. Christian thought has already sup¬ 
plied a background which is of great importance, but it 
has not been brought into effective relationship with the de¬ 
velopment of the institutions of property under modern 
economic conditions. This subject should be given close 
attention by any agencies for further study which may be 
established in the future. Meanwhile we suggest a few of 
the directions along which Christian thought should move. 

(a) It should be reaffirmed without qualification that 
all human property rights are relative and contingent only, 
in virtue of the dependence of man upon God as the giver 
of all wealth and as the creator of man’s capacities to de¬ 
velop the resources of nature. This fundamental Christian 
conviction must express itself both in the idea of steward¬ 
ship or trusteeship and in the willingness of the Christian 
to examine accumulations of property in the light of their 
social consequences. 

(b) The existing system of property rights and the exist- 


The Economic Order 


101 


ing distribution of property must be criticized in the light 
of the largely nonmoral processes by which they have been 
developed, and criticism must take account of the fact that 
every argument in defense of property rights which is valid 
for Christian thinking is also an argument for the widest 
possible distribution of these rights. 

(c) It should further be affirmed that individual prop¬ 
erty rights must never be maintained or exercised without 
regard to their social consequences or without regard to the 
contribution which the community makes in the produc¬ 
tion of all wealth. 

(d) It is very important to make clear distinction be¬ 
tween various forms of property. The property which con¬ 
sists in personal possessions for use, such as the home, has 
behind it a clearer moral justification than property in the 
means of production and in land which gives the owners 
power over other persons. All property which represents 
social power stands in special need of moral scrutiny, since 
power to determine the lives of others is the crucial point 
in any scheme of justice. The question must always be 
asked whether this is the kind of power which can be 
brought under adequate social control or whether it is of 
the type which by its very nature escapes and evades social 
control. Industrial property in particular encourages the 
concentration of power; for it gives the owner control over 
both the place and the instruments of labor and thus leaves 
the worker powerless so far as property relations are con¬ 
cerned, allowing him only the organized strength of his 
union and his political franchise to set against the power of 
ownership. Property in land on a large scale may repre¬ 
sent a similar power over those who are forced to rent it 
for a livelihood. There are consequently forms of feudal 
land ownership in Europe, in some states of America and 
in the Orient, which are frequent sources of social injustice. 


102 


The Oxford Conference 


On the other hand property in land which does not extend 
beyond the capacity of one family to cultivate — the small 
freehold which determines a large part of the agriculture 
of the Western world — belongs to a unique category. 
The small freeholder may find it increasingly difficult to 
compete against mechanized large-scale production and to 
make a living without being overdriven. But on the other 
hand there is a special justification for this type of prop¬ 
erty, since it gives freedom to perform a social function 
without the interference of capricious power and without 
the exercise of power over others. Furthermore, there is a 
more organic relation between owner and property in agri¬ 
cultural land than in any type of industrial ownership. 
Small-scale property in industry and in retail trade pos¬ 
sesses some of these same characteristics in a lesser degree. 
Yet there is always the danger that small-scale productive 
property, whether in land, industry or trade, may tempt 
the owner, in his competition with more powerful pro¬ 
ductive units, to exploit his own family and the other work¬ 
ers employed, especially since in any given case the latter 
may be too few to organize effectively. 

(2) The message of Christianity should throw a search¬ 
light on the actual facts of the existing situation, and in par¬ 
ticular reveal the human consequences of present forms of 
economic behavior. It is this which saves statements of 
principles from being platitudes. The kind of critical anal¬ 
ysis which is set forth in section two must be a part of the 
message of the church. Here it is important not to impute 
motives or to denounce individuals (except where special 
circumstances call for such denunciation) but to present 
facts in such a way that they speak for themselves to the 
individual conscience. What in isolation seems to be 
purely destructive criticism is a necessary part of the total 
process by which constructive change is brought about. 


The Economic Order 103 

The most obvious human consequences of existing eco¬ 
nomic behavior are quite as much, if not more, within the 
province of the Christian as they are within the province of 
the expert in the social sciences. The clergyman in the 
course of pastoral work has opportunities, if he is capable 
of using them, of knowing what the present economic situa¬ 
tion does to the character, the morale, the true welfare of 
men, women and children and to family life. The expert 
may have to supply statistics, but the meaning of the sta¬ 
tistics can be known only to those who see the particular 
results of an economic situation in the lives of persons. As 
it has been said, “ Love implies the ability to read statistics 
with compassion.” Christian insight ought to enable men 
and women to see more deeply into the effects of an eco¬ 
nomic situation. Where there are secular agencies which 
have the facts, the task of the church is to aid in making 
those facts available to its members and especially to those 
who have a teaching function within the church. But there 
are occasions on which some agency of the church may have 
the task of securing the facts. This can be most helpful in 
controversial situations in which the church has a position 
of relative independence of the parties to the controversy. 

It is not enough to catalogue particular cases of poverty 
and exploitation or to call attention to specific cases of 
selfish and irresponsible conduct on the part of those in 
power. It is the business of the church to point out where 
the economic institutions of our time are in themselves in¬ 
fected with evil. They place narrow limits on the choices 
of the best men who work within them. The individual 
employer, for example, is often greatly handicapped in 
paying a living wage if he must compete with less scrupu¬ 
lous employers. There are multitudes of high-minded 
Christians who as employers, businessmen and trade union¬ 
ists do a great deal to develop happy relationships between 


The Oxford Conference 


104 

employers and employees and to preserve the highest stand¬ 
ards of personal integrity within their spheres of influence. 
Many of the most praiseworthy human motives — con¬ 
structive service to mankind, the creation of cultural and 
material values, the desire to achieve conditions essential 
to the development of human personality—inspire their 
conduct. No criticisms of the present consequences of 
economic behavior in general should obscure the positive 
contribution of such men. On the other hand the presence 
of such conscientious Christians in places of responsibility 
should not create the expectation that, without changes in 
institutions and legal relationships, they will be able to 
overcome the evils set forth in section three of this report. 

(3) This searchlight of the Christian message can also 
make clear the obstacles to economic justice in the human 
heart, and especially those that are present in the hearts of 
people within the church. It is not enough that individual 
Christians become good in their intentions or become 
changed in their conscious motives. What is needed is the 
kind of self-knowledge which will help Christians to un¬ 
derstand how far their attitudes are molded by the position 
which they hold in the economic order. Self-knowledge is 
no less important than knowledge of external conditions, 
and more important than the knowledge of the sins of 
others. 

Christians must come to understand how far they really 
do seek, in spite of all pretensions to the contrary, a world 
in which they and their group are on top, how far their 
opinions on economic issues are controlled by the interests 
of the group or class to which they belong, how far they 
are deceived by false slogans and rationalizations, how far 
they are callous to “ evil at a distance ” or to evil experi¬ 
enced by another national or class group than their own — 
evil to which they may consent, for which they may vote. 


The Economic Order 


105 

or by which they may profit. Here, again, the important 
activity is not to denounce, but to help people to that self- 
knowledge which comes from the perspective of the Chris¬ 
tian emphasis upon sin, so that they will condemn them¬ 
selves. 

The various parts of the church must at this point be 
guided in the relative emphasis they place on different 
forms of self-deception by the character of their constitu¬ 
encies. Those parts of the church which contain chiefly 
the comfortable middle classes should create an atmosphere 
in which it is most likely that the peculiarly middle class 
illusions will be punctured. There is, for example, in 
these classes a tendency to take the present property system 
for granted and to regard as unjust changes which alter the 
present distribution of property or the present rights of 
owners. The kind of Christian teaching about property 
which is outlined above is at this stage of special impor¬ 
tance for these classes. 

These classes must also come to see how onesided those 
conceptions of Christianity are which assume that because 
Christianity is a spiritual religion economic conditions do 
not greatly matter, or that it is enough to leave it to the 
grace of God to save souls in all varieties of external cir¬ 
cumstances. Justice may at this stage be embodied in the 
distribution of bread, but for that reason the quest for jus¬ 
tice is not less spiritual. Moreover, it is unseemly for peo¬ 
ple to be complacent in the face of existing obstacles to the 
personal development of others, obstacles which they have 
not themselves experienced. To be complacent in this way 
because of a religious belief concerning the soul or God 
is to turn religion into an opiate for the conscience. 

Also it is important in some countries that Christians in 
the comfortable middle classes be helped to realize that they 
are controlled by class interests quite as much as the work- 


106 The Oxford Conference 

ers or farmers, and that in some countries where organiza¬ 
tions of workers and farmers are not far advanced they are 
themselves even more controlled by class interests than 
these other groups. The assumption that the interests of 
the middle classes are identical with the interests of the 
community is an illusion which unconsciously blinds many 
of the most sincere Christians and makes them unfair and 
self-righteous in their attitude toward those classes which 
at present are the chief sufferers from the economic order. 

At the proper time and in the proper place the teaching 
of the church should also create an atmosphere in which 
the illusions of the working classes and other groups can 
readily be punctured. It is an illusion, for example, to 
suppose that the interests of the industrial workers are 
identical with those of the community. 

What is important is that each group, in the most effec¬ 
tive ways possible, be brought under the criticism which is 
implicit in Christian faith. In relationships between 
classes, we tend at present to see only the mote in our 
brother’s eye. Christians have a special obligation, as they 
ought to have a special gift for this purpose, to try to in¬ 
terpret separate groups in society to one another. Barriers 
have to be broken through before they can be broken 
down. Self-sacrifice and compassion are good, but they are 
not, for example, what the poor today want of the well-to- 
do. Without the understanding mind which is able to 
think and feel the position of the other man, suspicion and 
distrust cannot be broken down. This power of delicate 
discernment and sensibility is rare in the world, because it 
is, in truth, a God-given grace and as such should be the 
peculiar contribution of the church to the making of true 
community. 

Self-knowledge is a necessary condition for Christian re¬ 
pentance. The church should be able to bring about this 


The Economic Order 


107 

condition of repentance because at the heart of its gospel it 
has a conception of human nature which should make men 
naturally suspicious of their own motives and which should 
thus lead them to put a strong burden of proof on them¬ 
selves when their decisions coincide with their own eco¬ 
nomic advantage. In some cases it can also be said that the 
church (and this would mean especially the clergy) has 
some degree of detachment from the immediate pressure 
of the interests of economic groups and should be able to 
see the world from the point of view of more than one 
group. That this is true at present to only a small degree 
is itself one of the most tragic and sinful factors in the life 
of the church. 

In the next decade those who are responsible for guid¬ 
ing the life of the church must seek, by means of these and 
other forms of teaching, to bring under moral control the 
attitude of their members in economic relationships — just 
as they have always sought to bring under moral control the 
attitude of their members in direct personal relationships. 
This task will involve far more than preaching. It must 
become an integral part of the whole life and atmosphere 
of the church. The church as a worshiping community 
must relate its acts of repentance and dedication to the 
economic order in which its members live. Emphasis must 
here be placed upon the importance of teaching children 
and young people before the crusts formed by class and 
convention close their minds. The training of the clergy 
must include preparation for this kind of teaching. 

In concluding this part of the report, we wish to empha¬ 
size that the work of teaching to which we have drawn 
attention above cannot be performed without the coopera¬ 
tion of the laity. Groups of men and women who are re¬ 
sponsible for the conduct of industry and the functioning 
of the economic order must be helped to discover for them- 


108 The Oxford Conference 

selves how the principles which we have tried to enunciate 
can be worked out in the spheres of life which are in some 
measure under their control. This opens up a large field 
for experiment and calls for fresh developments in many 
directions as well as for new types of ministry. 

6. IMMEDIATE CHRISTIAN ACTION 

(1) Action by the Churches 

(a) Reform of Their Own Institutional Life. It is 
within the power of the churches to set their own houses 
in order where this requires to be done. As an economic 
and social organization a church, be it local, national or 
ecumenical, cannot escape in sharing in some measure the 
features of the secular society in which it is rooted, but in 
so far as its members are sensitive to the spirit of Christ they 
will be critically aware of that relationship. A church 
which is prophetic and apostolic, as the Christian fellow¬ 
ship is meant to be, will live under a divine compulsion 
to realize the perfection of God, as completely as human 
imperfection will allow, in every concrete situation of its 
life — and having done all, its members will know them¬ 
selves to be “ unprofitable servants.” A church, moreover, 
is not likely to convince men in an economic-minded age 
that it is a supernatural society if it allows its economic and 
social organization to remain sub-worldly. In regard to the 
sources of income, methods of raising money and adminis¬ 
tration of property, as well as in the terms on which it em¬ 
ploys men and women and their tenure of office, churches 
ought to be scrupulous to avoid the evils that Christians 
deplore in secular society. 

Moreover, the economic organization of the church 
ought to help and not hinder the comity in Christ which 
should be the feature of its common life. There should, 
therefore, be a reasonable uniformity in the payment of 


The Economic Order 109 

those who hold the same spiritual office and they ought 
to be paid according to the real needs of themselves and 
their families, and sufficiently to allow them to give them¬ 
selves, without too great anxiety concerning daily bread, 
to their spiritual service. It is not tolerable that those who 
minister to the rich should be comparatively well off and 
those who minister to the poor should be poor for that rea¬ 
son alone. It is not right that those who have greater re¬ 
sponsibility in the church or greater gifts of utterance than 
their brethren should for that reason alone have much 
larger incomes. It does not express Christian solidarity 
that churches in poor and depressing districts should be 
handicapped by an inefficient and unlovely plant, which 
would not be tolerated in the assemblies of the rich. So 
long as the institution has these defects in its organization, 
it will corrupt most subtly the vocational sense of its min¬ 
istry and prejudice its witness in the world. On the other 
hand, if its members were more continuously critical of 
its economic structure and were quick to reform evils in it, 
such concrete action would release spiritual power. 

(b) Development of New Machinery for Research and 
Action . Hitherto the churches have been only partially 
informed and sporadically articulate on the subjects dealt 
with in this report. Although churches as such have no 
special competence in the technical sphere, yet it is in and 
through the technical sphere that spiritual principles have 
to find expression. In the words of Baron von Hiigel, “ the 
supernatural is known in and through the natural.” 

Before truthful judgment can be made or principles suc¬ 
cessfully applied in concrete situations, the relevant facts, 
material and personal, require to be studied and mastered. 
To this end the churches ought — where they are not al¬ 
ready equipped for the purpose — to have at their service, 
regionally as well as ecumenically, organs both for study 


1 io 


The Oxford Conference 


and research, as well as for witness and action in appropri¬ 
ate circumstances. Only so far as these are first-rate in com¬ 
petence and equipment are they likely to command atten¬ 
tion within and without the churches. 

In the past, pronouncements sometimes and preachings 
often have failed to carry weight because the speakers as¬ 
sumed a technical knowledge which they did not have. 
We would urge, therefore, that in the forming of Christian 
opinion there should be more cooperation between clergy 
and ministers on the one hand, and on the other those of 
the laity who are engaged in industry, commerce and pub¬ 
lic administration. 

(c) Integration of Work and Worship. One of the tasks 
laid upon the church, which is not easy to carry out in the 
existing state of things, is to re-establish in the experience 
of men and women a unity of work and worship. While 
their irrelevance to each other at the present time is partly 
because much work is pagan and unworshipful, it is also 
due to the fact that the daily business of the modern world, 
and the problems and issues dealt with in this report, are 
not sufficiently woven into the liturgy and worship of the 
church. Unless men are required to ask forgiveness, to 
make petition and to give thanks for the things with which 
they are chiefly concerned day by day, public worship will 
begin to seem secondary. There should be no discon¬ 
tinuity between the sanctuary and the life and work in 
office, factory or home, for the God we worship cares for 
the whole of men’s lives and not only for that part of life 
which is specifically religious. 

(2) Action by Christians 

(a) Action within the Existing Economic Order. What¬ 
ever their reaction to the existing situation, Christians are 
under constraint to carry their faith and loyalty into con- 


The Economic Order 


m 


Crete situations, the daily business and the personal rela¬ 
tionships of their life. In the integrity and faithfulness 
which they bring to “ the daily round and common task,” 
they may be instruments, in some measure, of the creative 
work and the justice and mercy of God. Outside the fields 
of business, industry and the professions there are, more¬ 
over, varied opportunities for Christian service. The in¬ 
creasing amount of law and legislation which controls in¬ 
dustrial activity and social life in the modern state depends 
for its administration and good results upon the actions of 
associations of employers, trade unions, government of¬ 
ficials and social workers, both paid and voluntary. The 
development of national and local government and of the 
cooperative movements provide large fields for social action 
and fellowship which the Christian should be anxious to 
enter. 

(b) Group Experiments. Because some things cannot 
be changed without state action or international adjust¬ 
ment, the effective power of “ two or three ” men of con¬ 
viction who make themselves into a Christian “ cell ” must 
not be underestimated. In fact, the world over there are 
such groups who in the spirit of him who walked the second 
mile are proving what can be done to bridge unbridgeable 
gulfs and to bring back into society those who have felt 
themselves to be outcast and unwanted. 

(c) Changing the Economic Order. Finally, in accord¬ 
ance with the argument developed in section four of this 
report, Christians have a particular responsibility to make 
whatever contribution they can toward the transformation, 
and if necessary the thorough reconstruction, of the present 
economic and political system, through their membership 
in political parties, trade unions, employers’ organizations 
and other groups. In this part of their Christian duty, the 
same characteristics are called for, though in a different 


112 


The Oxford Conference 


form, as those which Christians are called on to show in all 
their other activities: readiness to make sacrifices, to take 
effective action, to forgive those that trespass against them 
and to love those that seem to be their enemies. 

Christianity sincerely professed brings to those who are 
striving for a better order of society the serene confidence 
that to them that love God, all things work together for 
good. This world is God’s world. His Spirit is alive today 
as yesterday. Here in his own good time his kingdom will 
come. If men will put themselves unreservedly and hum¬ 
bly at the service of God, he is able to overrule their stupid¬ 
ity and sin and to use them to set forward his purpose for 
mankind, which is a society better than their deserving as 
it is beyond their desires. 


IV. REPORT OF THE SECTION ON CHURCH. 
COMMUNITY AND STATE IN RELATION TO 
EDUCATION * 

1. INTRODUCTION 

E ducation is the process by which the community seeks 
to open its life to all the individuals within it and en¬ 
able them to take their part in it. It attempts to pass on to 
them its culture, including the standards by which it would 
have them live. Where that culture is regarded as final, 
the attempt is made to impose it on younger minds. Where 
it is viewed as a stage in a development, younger minds are 
trained both to receive it and to criticize and improve upon 
it. This culture is composed of various elements. It runs 
from rudimentary skill and knowledge up to the interpre¬ 
tations of the universe and of man by which the community 
lives. It is not the purpose of this report to deal with the 
problem either of education in general or of religious edu¬ 
cation, but rather of the relation between them. As secular 
systems to an increasing extent claim to determine the 
inner life of men it becomes difficult to draw a sharp dis¬ 
tinction between the religious and the nonreligious ele¬ 
ments in education. Here we are principally concerned 

* This report was submitted substantially in its present form to the 
conference on the last day of its meeting. The conference received the re¬ 
port, referred it back to the section for revision in the light of the discus¬ 
sion, and commended it to the serious and favorable consideration of the 
churches. Before being submitted to the conference the report was ap¬ 
proved by the section. One or two members of the section expressed reser¬ 
vations in regard to particular points but did not oppose the adoption of 
the report. After the discussion in the plenary session, the report was re¬ 
vised by the drafting committee of the section, which made a few minor 
changes but none of substance. 


The Oxford Conference 


114 

with the problem of the respective spheres and mutual re¬ 
lations of church, community and state in so far as they may 
be educating or may claim the right to educate the same 
persons. 

2 . CHURCH, COMMUNITY AND STATE IN EDUCATION 

Before we consider these relations we must set forth cer¬ 
tain characteristics of church, community and state which 
affect the problem. 

(1) The Church 

By the church we mean in this report the fellowship of 
Christians organized in the existing churches. 1 Her gospel 
claims the whole man, spirit, mind and body, and every 
human institution for the service of God. Nothing which 
affects man’s individual or social life is a matter of indiffer¬ 
ence to her. She is concerned that every child and adult 
shall receive the fullest education consistent with his capac¬ 
ities; but she must make plain that no education is ade¬ 
quate without the living encounter with God and the re¬ 
sponse of personal faith. It is not her province as an 
organized institution to assume responsibility for the entire 
conduct of life and education. She recognizes the func¬ 
tions of the home, the community and the state in educa¬ 
tion and lays upon her members their obligation to work 
within those realms, even where she carries on education 
through schools of her own. 

The church has in mind God’s will for her — a will never 
fully achieved but to which she must always seek to con¬ 
form. Her members have to confess with penitence that 
they have frequently failed to understand and obey that 
will. 

1 In our use of the term “ the church ” throughout the report, we do 
not refer to the whole body of Christ in the mystical sense. 


Education 


1J 5 

(a) The Church a Fellowship of Free Persons under 
Law to Christ. The church is a fellowship of persons freed 
by the spirit of Christ. She reveres personality, since man 
is created in God’s image and God has revealed himself 
through men responsive to his Spirit, and his Word became 
flesh in Jesus Christ. 

She should be opposed to an education which teaches 
men to subordinate themselves to any human force as the 
final authority — be it the will of the majority, or of a 
leader or of an absolute state. That is to violate the sanc¬ 
tity of conscience which must be kept responsible to God 
alone. In her teaching, governments exist for men, not 
men for governments. Every human being has unique 
worth as a child of God, and should be so educated as to 
encourage him to make his singular contribution to the 
commonweal. 

She should be equally opposed to any system which 
stimulates the unconditional self-expression of the indivi¬ 
dual. She ought to insist upon the obligations of fellow¬ 
ship and to set the areas of obligation about the individual 
in concentric circles — his home, his neighborhood, his 
country, his world. She must learn afresh the importance 
of the organic relationships in which God has placed us in 
making us members one of another. This is her spiritual 
basis for social solidarity. On this foundation education 
in obedience to the law of Christian love creates consciences 
which cohere and form a stable society. Such education 
produces that spiritual discipline without which nations 
disintegrate. 

(b) The Church a Redemptive Fellowship. The church 
is a redemptive and sanctifying fellowship. The Christian 
presupposition is that all men are sinners and that the cul¬ 
ture of any community or nation is a mixture of good and 
evil elements. The church’s chief concern is to bring 


The Oxford Conference 


i 16 

every child and adult under the control of a transforming 
Master, Jesus Christ, and to train him to receive the culture 
of his community with spiritual discrimination acquired by 
viewing it in the light of Christ. A product of Christian 
education is therefore both a grateful recipient of and a 
critic of the cultural heritage. He is a patriot, but a dis¬ 
cerning patriot. It is this dual attitude, both appreciative 
and critical, toward the national life and institutions 
which it is the aim of the church’s education to develop. 
In some quarters this is regarded as the church’s offense 
against the community. 

(c) The Church a Supra-national Fellowship. The 
church is a supra-national fellowship. She draws her mem¬ 
bers from all nations and believes that they have more in 
common with one another than they have with non-Chris¬ 
tian fellow citizens, inasmuch as Christ and the Christian 
heritage are of greater worth than is any national inherit¬ 
ance apart from him. She inculcates loyalty to God above 
loyalty to the state, and places fidelity to the Christian fel¬ 
lowship above fidelity to the nation. Where she is true to 
her nature she cannot allow national interests to be set 
before those of humanity, nor permit any people to fancy 
that it can develop its national life without a just regard for 
every other people. She must educate her people to con¬ 
sider themselves as belonging first to God and to his church 
and secondarily to their nation. 

(d) The Church a Supra-racial Fellowship. The church 
is a supra-racial fellowship. She embraces in her Christian 
brotherhood men of every blood and color. While she 
cannot be blind to the fact that all races are not equally 
advanced, she teaches their equal worth before him who is 
the Father of them all. Nor can she compute the relative 
value to humanity of the diverse racial characteristics. If 
she be true to her gospel, she is compelled to protest against 


Education 


117 

injurious discriminations by those of one race against those 
of another. When a state in its laws or a community in its 
customs enacts the dominance of the inhabitants of one 
stock and accords those of other races an inferior status, 
there clearly ought to be a conflict in education between 
church and state or church and community. 

(e) The Church a Supra-class Fellowship. The church 
is a supra-class fellowship. In her membership there should 
be no place for social distinctions. In fact she has often 
been false to her principles and has become associated with 
a class or classes in the community. But she is concerned 
with men not as economic men but as children of God. By 
that interest in them she is committed to stand for such 
social justice as makes possible for all the inhabitants of 
every land a physical and intellectual life worthy of sons 
and daughters of the Most High and levels barriers which 
hinder them from living together in spiritual comradeship. 
She cannot tolerate social distinctions which breed inso¬ 
lence in some and servility in others. Nor can she commit 
herself to the interests of any one class. So where a state is 
dominated, as is often the case, by one or more economic 
groups, and is attempting in its education to perpetuate an 
aristocratic or a bourgeois or a proletarian culture, there 
will be differences between church and state. The church, 
as the representative of a loving God, must be especially 
concerned with those groups in the community which are 
least privileged and labor to obtain for them a just share 
in the national heritage. Where the community denies to 
some children an education which would enable them to 
develop their full power, or where it permits their ex¬ 
ploitation in industry, the church in God’s name must enter 
the lists as their protector. 

(f) The Church an Eternal Fellowship. The church is 
an eternal fellowship. She views men not only as citizens 


118 The Oxford Conference 

for a brief span of years in an earthly community and state, 
but also as those who are called to be citizens of the abiding 
city of God. This does not mean a lack of interest in their 
earthly lives. On the contrary, these assume a new mean¬ 
ing as a preliminary education for an immortal destiny. 
No training which fits only for useful citizenship in some 
community on earth seems to her to do justice to human 
beings, who are not creatures of time, but children of God, 
intended for eternal life with him in a spiritual common¬ 
wealth. 

The church claims to be all these things. But the church 
cannot substantiate her claim because she can neither speak 
nor act as one universal community. This gravely affects 
her capacity to discharge her own particular function in 
education; it weakens her appeals to youth and renders her 
less able either to arrive at a satisfactory and harmonious 
agreement with the state, when friendly, or to resist its 
encroachments, when hostile. Until we have set our own 
house in order in this matter of unity, we shall not be able 
fully to meet our responsibility to either the state, the com¬ 
munity or the world. In the progress toward this union 
each church should acquaint her own members with the 
life and work of other communions and with the work of 
the ecumenical movement. 

The educational mission of the church is interpreted in 
different senses. To some it is essentially distinct from the 
general education provided by any secular community. 
Thus Christian education can never be treated as a special 
case of general education. The interest of the church in 
education as in other spheres must always be seen over 
against that of nation or state. Her real concern is with 
regeneration, which can never come about as the result of 
a process of development but is an act of God. 

To others regeneration is indeed primary, but there are 


Education 


119 

other considerations which the church must have in view. 
Therefore her educational task is twofold: First, she has a 
share in the education of the whole man, body, mind and 
spirit. The God of grace is also the God of nature and of 
history. Man may know and serve him in every activity 
of life. Here the church can cooperate with the commu¬ 
nity to a considerable extent. Second, the church is also 
engaged in education in so far as she uses educational 
method in imparting the content of Christian truth, de¬ 
veloping the spirit and habit of worship and bringing men 
to share in the active life of the Christian fellowship. 
These differences of approach and emphasis affect our con¬ 
ception of the educational mission of the church and are to 
be understood even where they are not explicitly stated. 

(2) The State 

The state is concerned with the intelligence of its people, 
for upon their abilities in agriculture and industry and 
commerce depend its economic welfare and its national 
strength. It has an interest in forming the minds of its 
people so that they support the national institutions and 
cooperate with the undertakings of its rulers. Its purpose 
is to educate a people to be loyal and capable citizens or 
subjects, devoted with soul and mind and strength to their 
nation. It usually seeks to provide at least the minimum 
education for all and to open further opportunities of 
learning to the talented. 

Every state is obliged to maintain national solidarity. In 
an era of social disintegration, it is not surprising that cer¬ 
tain states have taken special measures to re-establish and 
maintain the unity of their people. Their governments 
seek to control all the agencies which influence human be¬ 
lief and behavior. They wish to use the school system, the 
press, broadcasting, the cinema and the theater for the pur- 


120 


The Oxford Conference 


pose of inculcating their ideals and fashioning the type of 
citizens they desire. 

Others which place more emphasis upon freedom recog¬ 
nize the rights of various agencies to share in the task of 
education. Such states regard their culture as a stage in a 
development and do not impose it rigidly upon-the minds 
of their youth. They wish their cultures to be enriched by 
the contributions of creative citizens and place fewest re¬ 
strictions upon the pursuit and discussion of truth. They 
would have their schools produce a citizenry of the present 
type but also individuals who transcend that type. They 
recognize that those who go beyond it are factors in social 
change and may be leaders in national progress. 

(3) The Community 

The community in its forms of life largely molds the 
personalities of its members. The system of relationships 
— social, economic and political — is a more potent edu¬ 
cational influence than any formal schooling. Christian 
education is deeply concerned, therefore, with shaping the 
patterns of community life in a way that will foster Chris¬ 
tian insights and conduct. 

In some lands the community carries on education 
through institutions of learning which are officially under 
neither church nor state control. These schools and col¬ 
leges had their counterparts in the medieval universities, 
which originally were confederations of scholars closely 
related to the church, but with a measure of freedom from 
ecclesiastical authority and from government supervision. 
Such institutions today provide varieties of education and 
make distinctive contributions to the national life. In 
them truths and values not yet generally accepted, or out 
of fashion, may be developed and conserved. They can 
carry on their work uncramped by the standardization 


Education 


121 


which government authorities usually impose or by the 
restrictions frequently set by church authorities. The state 
lays down certain requirements as to the extent of the edu¬ 
cation which they offer before it recognizes them as substi¬ 
tutes for its own governmentally controlled institutions of 
learning. It may assist them with grants or by exempting 
their property from taxation. They may be allies of the 
church in furnishing religious education, although not 
under any denominational oversight. The varieties of 
schools and colleges through which culture is given to the 
oncoming generation add to the national spiritual wealth. 
The church has an interest in institutions of learning both 
because of the enrichment they may bring to the mind of a 
nation and because she is enabled to establish schools of 
her own for the training of her leaders and thus provide a 
type of education not supplied by the government institu¬ 
tions. 


3. FACTORS IN THE PRESENT SITUATION 

There are circumstances in the life of our time which 
complicate the relations of church, community and state in 
education and occasion conflicts between them. Among 
these we call attention to the following: 

(a) Secularization of Modern Life. The outstanding 
characteristic of our world is the general secularization of 
life and thought. The presuppositions and motives of both 
private and public conduct have become exclusively this- 
worldly. In some lands there is an open break with reli¬ 
gion in all its forms. Elsewhere we are witnessing the 
re-emergence of pagan types of religion, which make a 
mundane good, such as the race or the nation, the supreme 
object of man’s loyalty. And in every country there are 
subtle influences of community sentiment and of daily prac¬ 
tice which deny or ignore the Christian meaning of life. 


122 


The Oxford Conference 


(b) Faith in Man’s Power to Direct his Destiny. The 
rapid advance in the sciences and in the development of 
machinery have brought men to trust in their own abilities. 
Whole peoples have substituted for their former religion 
a confidence in man’s collective power to create a world 
after his heart’s desire. Psychology in particular has de¬ 
veloped methods and techniques for handling spiritual dif¬ 
ficulties. Parents and teachers turn increasingly to child- 
guidance clinics for assistance in dealing with the moral 
problems of children. A growing number of adults seek 
the advice of psychotherapists in their perplexities and 
troubles, and deem this a satisfactory substitute for the 
direction once sought in the church’s ministry. The 
teaching profession has learned much from psychology, and 
not a few teachers are imbued with the confidence that a 
well developed secular educational system can fully prepare 
its pupils for life. Unhappily the churches have not always 
been awake or hospitable to the new knowledge and have 
thus widened the breach between themselves and the repre¬ 
sentatives of the sciences. 

(c) Social Disintegration. A second phenomenon char¬ 
acteristic of our time is social disintegration. Its effects are 
most clearly seen where the advent of modern civilization 
disrupts a primitive society. But in many countries indus¬ 
trialization and urbanization have tended to destroy the 
bonds which formerly linked men in their communal life. 
In place of membership in a social group with recognized 
obligations, men have become irresponsible individuals or 
have developed a new mass consciousness. This is as true 
of the Christian church as it is of society as a whole. More¬ 
over the commonly accepted religious convictions and gen¬ 
erally acknowledged ethical ideals which lent support to 
the growing personality have given place in some lands to 


Education 


123 

a widespread skepticism and relativism and elsewhere to an 
uncritical obedience to exclusive group loyalties. 

(d) The Weakening of Family Ties. A most serious 
feature of the tendency to social disintegration is the weak¬ 
ening of the institution of the home. The family has al¬ 
ways been regarded as the principal agency in the Christian 
nurture of the young. The impermanence of marital ties 
in some lands, the effect of modern industry in taking both 
parents out of the home in many places, the appalling 
blight upon family life of unemployment or casual employ¬ 
ment, under other circumstances, have led to the decay of 
the influences of the home. Even in nominally Christian 
homes we cannot now take a religious background for 
granted. This confronts the church with a new problem 
in its own fellowship. 

(e) The Shift of Interest in Education. A fundamental 
change in the aims and practice of education is the steady 
movement of the interest of educators from the knowledge 
and skill which their pupils acquire to the pupils them¬ 
selves. Until recent times much public education has con¬ 
fined itself to instruction in certain subjects and has re¬ 
garded the training of character as the function of the 
church. Today, however, it is setting out to create a par¬ 
ticular kind of person in accordance with its interpretation 
of the ends of man’s existence. This interpretation even 
at its best does not admit the full claims of Christianity and 
the church therefore should be aware of the difference be¬ 
tween such an interpretation and her own. 

(f) New Educational Agencies. New means of public 
education are now in operation which are profoundly af¬ 
fecting men’s minds. Broadcasting and the cinema pro¬ 
vide unprecedented opportunities for reaching and influ¬ 
encing masses of the population. The uses to which these 


The Oxford Conference 


124 

new means are put may promote propaganda and distort 
values at the expense of true education and may cause 
friction between the various institutions concerned with 
education. 

(g) The Increasing Intervention of the State in Educa¬ 
tion. There has been an increasing intervention of the 
state in all departments of life. It was accelerated after the 
war, when the state alone seemed strong enough to control 
the events of the economic and social crisis. This interven¬ 
tion spread over all areas of the national life, including 
education. The result has been tension between the state 
and other factors in education — the home, the community 
and the church. Certain governments have taken exclusive 
control of the organizations of youth, in particular those 
concerned with sport, so important in the eyes of young 
people. In the social disintegration it has been the state 
which has marshaled the new educational agencies for the 
fulfillment of its purposes. And it is in the state that man’s 
confidence in himself has come to fullest expression. 

4. CRUCIAL ISSUES FOR CHRISTIANS IN EDUCATION 

In the present situation there are four major issues on 
which church and state conflict in education. 

(a) Freedom. One is the issue of freedom. For any 
education worthy of the name truth is supreme and there 
must be freedom both to seek and to teach it. This is very 
different from political propaganda which denies that free¬ 
dom. Christians in every country should endeavor to un¬ 
derstand the distinction. In reaction to ideas dominant in 
recent times, there are powerful movements in education 
which subordinate the individual to the interests of the 
community as these are understood by the political author¬ 
ity. The attempt is made to conform him to a sharply de¬ 
fined pattern, and deviations from the desired type are not 


Education 


!25 

tolerated. It must be recognized that even under these 
systems the individual may find both release and discipline 
in a wholehearted response to the claims of nation or com¬ 
munity or class. But such systems have not solved the 
problem of how to secure conformity and produce creative 
types of personality. The church’s quarrel with them is 
that their patterns are sub-Christian, and sometimes anti- 
Christian, and their rigidity cramps the growth of children 
of God. It is her conviction that the proper correction of 
error is not the use of repression but the appeal to larger 
truth. Education must encourage a disciplined sense of 
obligation and the unfettered development of the indi¬ 
vidual’s capacities. 

It is the church’s aim, as has been shown, to educate free 
persons under law to Christ. In her view, however, free¬ 
dom is not a natural gift. At this point much educational 
theory is unrealistic, ignoring the necessity for inward 
deliverance and unity. The freedom she seeks is both lib¬ 
erty from the tyranny and deceit of evil passions within the 
heart, and strength of character to preserve liberty of con¬ 
science amid external pressure. It is her conviction that 
personality attains this freedom and completeness only in 
obedience to God. Such spiritual freedom has been at¬ 
tained by Christians even under most adverse outward 
circumstances. Nevertheless, service to God demands the 
service of one’s fellow men and the obtaining for them of 
external conditions favorable to their fullest life. 

(b) Social Disintegration. In the face of social disinte¬ 
gration, the community is animated by a resolve to restore 
organic unity in the national life. Because of Christianity’s 
development of a fellowship which overleaps barriers of 
nation and race and class and sets Christians in an eternal 
as well as in the temporal order, the church is looked on 
as a hostile force. In the field of education the effort is 


126 


The Oxford Conference 


made to banish everything which conflicts with a common 
national ethos. This is true not only in totalitarian states, 
but also in democracies where educators regard Christian 
faith with its distinctive fellowship as divisive of the com¬ 
munity, and would therefore accord it no place in that edu¬ 
cation for the social order which they envisage. 

It must be asserted that Christianity is opposed to any 
deification of the community or state. These can never be 
supreme objects of loyalty or the ultimate social goals. 
Christianity broke up the community-state-church in the 
ancient world where religion was merely one aspect of the 
communal life. It introduced a new principle by inculcat¬ 
ing a double loyalty — to Caesar and to God. But Chris¬ 
tians recognize the values in national life and culture. 
They acknowledge that the state, like the family, has its 
claims upon a man. Civic duty involves his loyal obedi¬ 
ence to all that the state demands of him, in so far as it does 
not conflict with his loyalty to God. Moreover, such loy¬ 
alty to God brings into society a principle of redemption 
and of growth. To see all things in the light of the absolute 
claims of God is to bring to bear on them a searching criti¬ 
cism and to subject them to a transforming judgment. 

The church must penitently confess that, while on mis¬ 
sion fields there is a sharp differentiation between the ideals 
in her education and those of the community, in so-called 
Christian lands the Christian understanding of the way of 
life is often not distinctive from that generally accepted. 
The church herself has too readily compromised and her 
witness loses its pungency. The contemporary pressure of 
aggressive non-Christian systems must be viewed as one of 
God’s methods of recalling her to a fresh discovery of the 
truths and ideals of which she is the trustee. 

(c) Control of Youth Movements. One of the charac¬ 
teristic features of our time is the response made by youth 


Education 


127 

to the appeal of political leaders who offer them a part in 
the building of a nation. There has followed in some states 
a control of youth organizations so exclusive that church, 
family and community have been deprived of their due 
share in the full development of the new generation. But 
we must recognize that there is something in the totalitar¬ 
ian claim that captivates contemporary youth. There are 
a sense of community, definiteness of purpose and demand 
upon the whole energies and devotion of the personality. 
This is a challenge to the church to present Jesus Christ to 
the youth of every land as Lord and to enlist their devotion 
for his purpose for mankind through the community of his 
church. 

(d) Modern Knowledge, Method and Technique. Both 
state and community in their education are making use of 
the new knowledge and agencies referred to in the preced¬ 
ing section. This has brought them into those fields of 
character and spiritual health which the church has re¬ 
garded as peculiarly her own. She must welcome an edu¬ 
cation which concerns itself with the whole man, and new 
sciences and techniques which assist in the solution of spir¬ 
itual difficulties. It is increasingly apparent that she can¬ 
not rest satisfied with the education of the intellect alone. 
She must address herself to the infinitely more difficult tasks 
of preventing and removing those emotional biases which 
in most men dull the voice of conscience, and of exposing 
the rationalizations under which they cloak their selfish¬ 
ness, their love of power and the cowardice of their hearts. 

The church ought to make clear, not only to the com¬ 
munity and the state but also to her own members, that the 
complexity of modern life has strengthened the tendency 
to overestimate professional and social success and the 
means of achieving it. Under pressure of anxiety lest 
young people fail to find secure foothold in industrial, com- 


128 


The Oxford Conference 


mercial or professional life parents have come to attach 
overwhelming importance to the acquirement of vocational 
or academic qualifications for employment. The power of 
truly sensitive response to the world of nature and of art 
and to the qualities and claims of other members of the 
human family is not developed as it should be, nor is insight 
into the meaning and purpose of life as a whole. And here 
also the church must penitently confess that not only a sec¬ 
ularized community and state but even her own members 
often forget that strength and serenity of soul, the result of 
faith in God, are more indispensable than economic secu¬ 
rity or professional success. 

The situation makes upon her a double demand. In the 
first place, she must see to it that those who engage in her 
work are aware of the aid which modern knowledge can 
give in the education of both old and young and can turn 
that aid to account. They must know what is being done 
in these fields that they may direct such as need this help to 
those competent to supply it. Further, the church must 
keep her own education abreast of the improvements which 
these sciences have brought to general educational theory 
and practice. But no technique alone will suffice for the 
end of the building up of the whole man into Christ. The 
spirit of Christ must be mediated through persons to per¬ 
sons. The church must proclaim in its purity her own es¬ 
sential gospel of the healing mercy of Christ; she must pro¬ 
claim with power that through the appropriation of this 
mercy men receive salvation of soul and that apart from it 
there can be no final attainment of mental and spiritual 
health. 

5. THE IMMEDIATE TASKS OF THE CHURCH IN EDUCATION 

While the church in some parts of the world finds herself 
hampered by restraints upon her liberties, almost every- 


Education 


129 

where she is not making full use of the freedom accorded 
her. We would attempt to set before ourselves and our 
brethren in all the churches the tasks in education to which 
we should address ourselves. In considering them we dis¬ 
cover that an impediment more serious than any restriction 
from without is the disunion of the church’s own forces. 
Sometimes where educational leaders in community and 
state are eager to cooperate with her they are perplexed by 
the differing proposals of her various communions and em¬ 
barrassed by the rivalries among them. They hesitate also 
to involve public institutions in sectarian strife. Unques¬ 
tionably there is a basic unity among the vast majority of 
Christians in their spiritual interpretation of the universe 
and of man and in their consequent ethic. Yet nothing 
seems harder than to express it without antagonizing Chris¬ 
tians who wish more included in the statement of it or wish 
a different emphasis in what is said. It is the lack of a com¬ 
mon mind on the fundamentals of Christian faith and life 
which has even pushed some states, where those in author¬ 
ity were themselves Christians, into secularist systems of 
education. If the church is to discharge her teaching duty 
she must bring her communions into a common front on 
educational issues and unite her forces in fulfilling this 
urgent task. 

(a) A Theology Relevant to Current Life. Christian 
faith has always formulated itself to meet current errors 
and to win the contemporary mind. Confronted with sec¬ 
ularism and aggressive non-Christian systems of thought 
and conduct, the church finds many of her loyal adherents 
in the teaching profession, as well as in the mass of her 
members, confused as to the meaning of the gospel and the 
principles by which it would have men live in the present 
world. As we have pointed out, the attempt to reach a com¬ 
mon mind on the fundamentals of Christian faith and con- 


The Oxford Conference 


13° 

duct to be taught has often failed. But the urgency of the 
crisis in which we find ourselves and the necessity of much 
greater unity among Christians, if the church is to cooper¬ 
ate with the state and community in education, impel us 
in this ecumenical conference to make an attempt to sum 
up basic assumptions which underlie an education accept¬ 
able to Christians. 

Christians share the conviction that there is one living 
and true God, Creator and Lord of earth and heaven, whose 
universe is planned and controlled by wisdom and love, and 
the chief of whose creatures is man, possessed of reason and 
conscience, and capable of becoming like him in character 
and sharing eternal life with him in an enduring society of 
the righteous. But Christians know themselves and all 
men as sinners and members of a race estranged from God 
in pride and at war within itself through selfishness. Man, 
both individually and collectively, needs redemption. 
God, the Creator and Lord, is also the Redeemer revealed 
in Christ, who died and rose again for us. God gives him¬ 
self in his Spirit to re-create individuals and communities 
who turn to him in repentance and to guide them to dis¬ 
cover for themselves the way of Christ and to grow into his 
stature in faith and hope and love. 

The divine purpose to redeem, which is eternal in the 
will of God, was disclosed in the series of historic divine acts 
by which the purpose was realized in the life of man. The 
story of the revelation of this purpose and of its fulfillment, 
together with an inspiring record of the long history of the 
people of God — first as the Jewish church, inchoate, pro¬ 
visional, expectant, then divinely established as the body of 
Christ — is told in the Bible. To this we continually ap¬ 
peal. It is our charter, the main evidence for our belief 
that the heavens have been opened and that God is a God 
who lives and acts. The Bible has not always been wisely 


Education 


131 

used, but the survival of Christianity will depend, as it has 
always depended, on its continual use. Because it comes 
from God the Bible has a universal quality, and by it man 
is judged. There is in the Bible the true revelation of the 
nature of God to men of every age, authenticated alike by 
the authority of the church and by the interior witness of 
the Spirit in the heart of man; there is an interpretation of 
human history; there is a view of life, which can be obtained 
from no other quarter. The Bible has that to say about 
God and about man which the present generation, perhaps 
more than any other, needs urgently to hear. 

This understanding of God and of man needs to be ex¬ 
pressed in a living theology which grows out of the devotion 
of multitudes of Christian people and out of the collabora¬ 
tion of Christian thinkers in all countries and in all com¬ 
munions of the church. In particular it needs to be 
embodied in the minds and lives of Christians in the teach¬ 
ing profession, who by their example and by their inter¬ 
pretation of the culture they impart communicate their 
faith. 

In the work of education some would stress the fact that 
the gospel must appear irrational to those whose initial as¬ 
sumptions are not Christian. Others would rather empha¬ 
size that reason is the gift of God whereby we understand 
his message and that we should be ready to give a reason to 
others for the hope that is in us; the Christian church, they 
would say, is one of the strongholds of belief in reason in 
a world that seems to be more and more emotionally con¬ 
trolled. Both views are alike in acknowledging that the 
gospel is supra-rational. Both agree that it is part of Chris¬ 
tian duty to educate the power of criticism so that people 
may discriminate between those elements in the thought 
and movement of our time which are God’s gift and those 
which are incompatible with the Christian understanding 


The Oxford Conference 


132 

of life. Yet there is here a real difference in emphasis such 
as was referred to in section three of this report. 

(b) A Philosophy and a Psychology of Education. 
There is also need to formulate a philosophy of education 
from the Christian standpoint and to develop a psychology 
which does not disregard the significance of religious ex¬ 
perience but finds in man’s relationship with God the 
supreme integrating and directing power in human person¬ 
ality. When we ask ourselves so apparently simple a ques¬ 
tion as why children should go to school and what purpose 
teachers have in teaching them we raise greater issues than 
perhaps we realize. The relation of religion to education 
cannot be made clear if education is a series of uncoordi¬ 
nated studies and activities. We cannot discern the sig¬ 
nificance and the aim of the whole if we have not considered 
the relative value and the interdependence of the various 
parts of the curriculum, to say nothing of all that makes up 
school life. Again, the very basis of our faith is the self¬ 
revelation of God in Jesus Christ, who for us men and for 
our salvation was made man. So we lose much if we do not 
try to understand the characteristics of human nature and 
its growth toward the complete man. 

(c) The Educational Task of the Church in her own In¬ 
stitutions and through her own Membership. It has al¬ 
ready been said that the patterns of community life have a 
more potent educational influence than any formal school¬ 
ing. We therefore consider first those members of the 
church whose task it is to foster the growth of Christian 
personality in the various forms and relationships found 
within the community. 

Of these the most fundamental is the home. All mothers 
and fathers ought to be made aware that their way of life 
is more influential during the infancy of their children than 
any oral teaching later on. Deep-seated emotional tenden- 


Education 


133 

cies and moral attitudes are engendered in the earliest years 
of a child’s life by its daily experience of sympathy and love 
or antagonism and fear in its simplest and most necessary 
relationships with its father and mother. The first intro¬ 
duction to worship and to the Bible should be given, wher¬ 
ever possible, by the parents. We need to remember that 
parents cannot accomplish this task satisfactorily without 
preparation and help. The work of parent education 
through voluntary organizations is a powerful agency or 
ally of the church. 

The personal impressions made on the pupils by their 
contact with the teacher and with one another in the school 
are more indelible and pervasive than the effects of formal 
instruction. Therefore the church has a paramount re¬ 
sponsibility regarding the supply, training and continuous 
encouragement of Christian teachers. Where she has 
teacher-training colleges under her own control she may 
influence the whole tone of education not only in church 
schools but also in those of the state. Even where this op¬ 
portunity is not given she may render a service of incalcu¬ 
lable importance by helping teachers, through their mem¬ 
bership in the church and through voluntary associations, 
to maintain their spiritual vigor and purpose as teachers. 
In two directions particularly the church can help the 
teaching profession. The first is the understanding and 
choice of biblical material, the elucidation of the central 
doctrines of the Christian faith and the discussion of special 
difficulties in dealing with these. The second is an under¬ 
standing of the nature of worship, and practice in leading 
children’s worship; for no matter how successful a teacher 
may be in imparting the facts of the Christian revelation, 
the child’s religious life cannot develop as it should unless 
worship is central in it. 

It remains true as it has always been that the factor of 


The Oxford Conference 


134 

supreme importance in Sunday school work is the teacher’s 
own Christian experience and love of children. But if the 
effect of this attitude is not to be lost and if the decline in 
attendance in certain countries is to be arrested, teachers 
must be encouraged and helped to equip themselves as 
fully as possible both in knowledge of the Bible and of the 
church’s life and activities, and in the understanding of how 
children grow and learn. The church should be willing to 
utilize in her Sunday school organization and methods the 
best educational knowledge and experience available, and 
thus encourage the participation in Sunday school work of 
trained teachers and of young people who ought to use the 
advantages of their own higher education in her service. 

We have been discussing the preparation of teachers for 
giving religious instruction; but the teacher’s whole out¬ 
look will influence the pupil’s interpretation of all that he 
learns. As regards so-called secular subjects we must re¬ 
member that, especially in secondary schools, colleges and 
universities, disciplines such as history and biology handled 
in a purely secular way, without so much as a glance in the 
direction of the God of history and of nature, may exert a 
negative influence more powerful than any number of 
courses in religion. On the other hand, courses in religious 
knowledge should be given so that the pupil faces the reali¬ 
ties of personal and community life. One great cause of 
secularization is the fact that religious teaching has been 
given in a way which seems to indicate that there is a neces¬ 
sary clash between scientific knowledge and the biblical 
view of God, man and nature. Without trying in the least 
to give “ scientific ” proof for what can be known only by 
revelation, the teaching of religion should avoid at all costs 
bringing young people into a false dilemma. They should 
never feel that they have to choose between what they take 
to be the voice of the church and the call of truth. 


Education 


135 

Without a lay leadership which combines intellectual 
ability with vital Christian experience, the church cannot 
effectively present her message either in the schools and 
universities or within her own fellowship. At present the 
development of such leadership is seriously curtailed by the 
secularization of many colleges and universities which were 
founded on a Christian basis. This situation has many 
causes, such as the frequent exclusion of religious knowl¬ 
edge from the curriculum, inadequate concern for Chris¬ 
tian personality in the selection of members of staff, and 
pressure of academic and extra-curricular activities which 
leave little room for corporate worship. The years spent 
at school or college may where there is a chapel lead to an 
attachment to the worship and fellowship then experienced 
and to an estrangement from the worship and fellowship of 
a congregation. This separation may even lead to a com¬ 
plete detachment from organized religion. These difficult 
ties can be overcome only through the presentation of the 
Christian gospel in terms of thought and action related to 
the experience of young people and through a determined 
and discerning effort to enlist them, when they leave school 
and college, in great enterprises of a social and missionary 
character. Voluntary Christian associations in the colleges 
and universities provide an ecumenical fellowship and 
can be used to link up students with the local church. 

The church cannot but be concerned with the youth 
movements which play so large a part in the life of the 
world today. Leadership will belong to those who under¬ 
stand youth’s capacity for unselfish devotion and obedience 
and its desire for a life in comradeship. It is the church’s 
responsibility to see that those of her young people who 
excel in leadership and capacity recognize the possibilities 
of Christian service in these movements. This involves not 
only a personal faith in and loyalty to Christ but also per- 


The Oxford Conference 


136 

sonal discipline and a constant study of the meaning of the 
gospel and its application in the world today. 

The church’s ministry of teaching is wider than that of 
school and college. Adult education is not a matter of 
overtaking deficiencies due to neglect in childhood and 
youth. It is the continuing process of growth in Christian 
character and understanding. The members of the church 
need much clearer and more systematic teaching of Chris¬ 
tian truth and its implications for conduct. Ignorance of 
what the Christian faith is and of the obligations which it 
imposes is widespread and alarming particularly among 
young people. Still more so is the degree to which her 
members fail to take seriously in their business and civic 
and other social relations the Christian loyalty which they 
acknowledge. The majority of them seem pathetically ig¬ 
norant of the Christian way and of the resources for follow¬ 
ing it to be had in that communion with God which is the 
life of the church. Preaching needs to be supplemented by 
a full and carefully planned program of Christian educa¬ 
tion in every parish or congregation. Much help can be 
obtained by making use of the facilities provided by rec¬ 
ognized adult educational organizations, universities and 
others. Groups of persons, moreover, with common re¬ 
sponsibilities in the family, in business, in industry, in trade 
or profession should be encouraged to seek together the 
Christian solution of their problems and the further ad¬ 
vances that they can make in discharging their duties. 
Church leaders must work out means of utilizing the press, 
broadcasting and the cinema in the Christian education 
both of their own people and of the community at large. 

Many of the studies described in the foregoing para¬ 
graphs can be pursued only in leisure time. But health of 
mind and spirit no less than health of body can be secured 
only if there is due enjoyment in that leisure of recreative 


Education 


137 

activities also, such as sports and pastimes, music and the 
plastic arts, literature and the drama, travel and explora¬ 
tion of the countryside. The church, as well as the state 
and the community, may contribute to the provision of 
facilities for these pursuits. She must do what she can to 
educate her own people in the meaning and use of leisure. 
She should also help to spread throughout the community 
a sense of its obligations regarding both the adequacy and 
the standards of the opportunities for the wholesome em¬ 
ployment of leisure offered to all its members. 

But with the enormous increase in unemployment dur¬ 
ing recent years, leisure time has become one of the most 
serious educational problems. The immense strides in 
technology in both industry and agriculture and the grow¬ 
ing disparity between production and consumption have 
brought about a condition of unemployment which threat¬ 
ens to become permanent. Even in socially normal times 
substantial portions of our population are without work. 
Furthermore, the shortening of the working day is adding 
to the leisure time of the regularly employed. 

The educational implications of these facts are large and 
serious. The cultural and spiritual wants of men far out¬ 
run their material needs. Yet progress in the cultural and 
spiritual realm lags far behind material progress through 
discovery and invention. This is one of the main causes for 
the social disintegration to which reference has been made. 
The new leisure presents an opportunity dor adult educa¬ 
tion on a large scale which Christians are called upon to 
promote, and for adult Christian education in which the 
church should actively participate. 

Since education is a part of the church’s mission, teach¬ 
ing is a function of her ministry in which the ordained 
minister and the lay teacher are partners. Each brings to 
the common task the fruits of a distinctive training and 


The Oxford Conference 


138 

experience and each has much to learn from the other. We 
have already touched upon the preparation and work of the 
professional teacher. The first essential for the minister is 
that he should be a master of those biblical and theological 
studies in respect of which the teachers ought to be able to 
look to him for inspiration and guidance. But he also 
needs sufficient knowledge of educational theory and prac¬ 
tice to enable him to enter into the teacher’s work with 
understanding and appreciation, and thus to make the 
presentation of his own material relevant to the teacher’s 
use of it. As a preacher the minister himself teaches, and he 
should learn from his theological college how to make 
preaching educative as well as prophetic. He is likely in 
most cases to be drawn into the direct work of teaching, 
whether in Sunday school, young people’s societies or adult 
groups, within the church or in church day schools; in some 
countries he will certainly be called upon to give religious 
instruction in day schools under the system approved by the 
state. He should therefore be given whatever help, with 
regard to educational method, it may be possible to pro¬ 
vide as part of his course of ministerial training. He will 
thereafter be the more likely to seize as he should the op¬ 
portunities afforded by special short courses on the princi¬ 
ples and practice of teaching, and to value aright those per¬ 
sonal relationships with teachers in his own area which 
must inevitably be mutually profitable. 

Worship introduces a fundamental distinction between 
the life of the Christian society and that of every secular 
group. It is the adoration of the eternal God who dwells 
beyond the limitations of our thought and knowledge. At 
the same time, if the world is to be known as a sphere of 
the divine activity, we need a more determined effort to 
use the daily texture of experience within the church, com¬ 
munity and state to supply the content of Christian acts of 


Education 


139 

praise, thanksgiving, penitence and petition. The training 
of ministers and teachers in the use of educational method 
in the conduct of worship has already been mentioned. 
While corporate worship is itself a training of the mind and 
spirit there is room for definite guidance in habits of private 
prayer and meditation and for the encouragement of prayer 
by groups of people who have professional or other inter¬ 
ests in common. 

(d) The Church in Relation to Public Education where 
the Government is Responsive to Christian Opinion. 
The church is confronted in the world today with a va¬ 
riety of state policies in regard to religious education. Very 
generally a widespread system of church schools has been 
superseded by the provision of public or state schools for 
all classes of the population. The church moreover has 
found it difficult, owing to her limited financial resources, 
to maintain her schools on a level of efficiency comparable 
with that of the better equipped and more adequately 
staffed state schools. The choice here does not lie between 
struggling to preserve a number of unsatisfactory schools 
and closing them all. We believe that it is an essential part 
of the church’s witness that at such a time she concentrate 
her efforts upon creating and maintaining a smaller num¬ 
ber of schools of differing types which by their distinctive 
quality serve as a demonstration of educational standards 
that are fully Christian. This is shown by the achievements 
of many denominational schools in countries of religiously 
mixed populations. 

Since the mass of her members always moves slowly to¬ 
ward a new and more sensitive Christian conscience in mat¬ 
ters of social obligation, it would seem that the church must 
today, as in past centuries, encourage and protect minority 
groups of Christians who protest against contemporary 
society, are critical of the organized churches and desire 


The Oxford Conference 


140 

to experiment in education with what they consider a more 
Christian way of life. Her history makes plain the debt 
which subsequent generations owe to rebels and explorers, 
and, while they will never be the main body of her people, 
she ought to be at pains to retain them in her spiritual 
household and to safeguard them in what may seem their 
eccentric and unconventional ways. 

In some lands provision for Christian teaching finds a 
place in the schools maintained by the state. This plan 
makes possible, as perhaps no other could, the diffusion of 
knowledge of the contents of the Bible and of Christian be¬ 
lief throughout the population. It is, however, important 
not to overestimate the importance of the inclusion of re¬ 
ligious teaching in the curriculum of a school. Its effect 
may even be harmful if the teacher lacks conviction or ade¬ 
quate training. If the majority of the population are in 
general sympathy with Christian standards and values, 
church and state should find no difficulty in working to¬ 
gether to assure a religious education to those who desire it. 
Obviously, freedom of conscience must be respected and no 
coercion exerted on those who do not wish religious train¬ 
ing for themselves or their children. But the Christian or 
other religious elements in the population should not be 
deprived of their right to receive a completely religious 
education. Freedom of conscience in education has been 
too negatively conceived. There are both a liberty not to 
have religious training forced where it is objected to, and 
a liberty to have it provided where consciences feel it essen¬ 
tial for the education of citizens of the state and of the king¬ 
dom of God. If there are incompatible religious groups to 
be considered, two or more types of religious education may 
have to be provided. 

Here is one of the situations where Christians must seek 
for the largest possible agreement in what they ask or the 


Education 


141 


civil authorities will content themselves with supplying a 
secular education to avoid possible sectarian strife. Since 
the beginning of the present century, a great advance has 
been made in at least one country where previously sus¬ 
picions and conflicts arising from disagreement between the 
churches as to the content of Christian teaching in state 
schools had gravely hindered the progress of both general 
and specifically religious education. A large part of this 
mischief was due to laying emphasis upon what must not be 
taught because it would be sectarian. When attention was 
drawn to the inadequacy of the syllabuses of biblical in¬ 
struction that were in use, education authorities invited 
the cooperation of the churches and the teachers in drawing 
up agreed syllabuses satisfactory from both the religious 
and the educational points of view. A resulting emphasis 
upon what all parties would wish included has greatly en¬ 
riched the content of the teaching, has created a far more 
Christian atmosphere of mutual trust, and has led to active 
cooperation in securing facilities for teachers to equip them¬ 
selves more fully for their task. Governments and local 
authorities which do not take the initiative in such a move¬ 
ment may yet respond to it if churches and teachers make 
common cause in promoting it. In some cases the syllabus 
agreed upon in this way for use in state schools is used also 
for certain days in the week in the church schools, and the 
special teaching characteristic of the denomination is given 
on the remaining days. 

There is another plan which obtains in some countries 
where church and state are legally separate. By this the 
churches, with the approval of a majority in the community, 
have arranged with the educational authority that schools 
should release at stated hours, for Christian instruction, 
pupils whose parents desire it, and have come to an agree¬ 
ment among themselves as to the courses offered and the 


The Oxford Conference 


142 

conduct of such instruction. This plan has the advantage 
of leaving the church at liberty to direct the specifically 
religious education given. 

It may fairly be asked of the state that if it permits re¬ 
ligious instruction to be given in its schools it should insure 
as far as possible that such instruction be treated as seri¬ 
ously as that in other subjects and as of equal importance. 
Unfortunately this is often not the case. Teachers should 
be given as good opportunities of learning how to give re¬ 
ligious instruction as they have of acquiring competence in 
the teaching of subjects commonly called secular, whether 
they receive their training in colleges specially provided for 
prospective kindergarten and primary teachers or in the 
education departments of universities. When they have 
completed their training and are at work in the schools, 
teachers should be encouraged to avail themselves of fur¬ 
ther help such as university extra-mural departments or 
properly qualified voluntary organizations provide in co¬ 
operation with education authorities for the study of the 
Bible and methods of teaching it. As in other subjects, 
specialist teachers should be appointed, when the size of the 
school justifies it, and particularly in secondary schools, to 
give some of the more advanced teaching and to assist and 
guide other teachers who share in the work of religious in¬ 
struction. It is of course most desirable that such specialist 
teachers should be also qualified for the teaching of some 
subject or subjects other than religious knowledge and 
should not run the risk of appearing to be interested only 
in religion as something apart from all other aspects of edu¬ 
cation and life. 

Colleges and universities which are precluded by the 
basis on which they are founded from maintaining a di¬ 
vinity faculty or providing courses in the study of religion 
as well as from holding services of public worship for their 


Education 


143 

members, may well give full facilities to recognized inter¬ 
denominational movements, such as the Student Christian 
Movement and the Y.M.C.A. or Y.W.C.A., for carrying 
on those forms of religious education and fellowship which 
so patently meet the needs of students and link the colleges 
and universities with the church. Furthermore, while it is 
obviously essential that distinction in intellectual capacity 
and achievement should be required of those who teach or 
direct undergraduate and graduate students, and while in 
state institutions religious tests are inadmissible, full regard 
should be paid in making college and university appoint¬ 
ments to the moral and spiritual qualities of men and 
women who will inevitably influence so deeply the future 
leaders in the life of the community. 

In schools supported by public funds or on Christian 
foundations, the church cannot feel it to be good that any 
pupils who will profit by the education supplied should be 
excluded on grounds of race or social status. 

(e) Christian Education in a Non-Christian Environ¬ 
ment. The greatest opportunity of the church in relation 
to public education lies in those countries where there is no 
developed system of state schools but where a friendly gov¬ 
ernment welcomes the pioneering efforts of Christian mis¬ 
sions in the provision of schools. Here religion is regarded 
as essential to the reintegration of a community which has 
lost the social, economic and spiritual cohesion it possessed 
under primitive tribal conditions. Thus generous grants 
from public funds are frequently made to the support of 
Christian schools. Christian teachers are given exceptional 
freedom both to express their deepest convictions and to 
experiment in new methods. The situation has its own 
dangers. Chief of these is the danger that, under the pres¬ 
sure of an extending system of schools and rising standards 
of efficiency, the distinctive Christian witness in education 


The Oxford Conference 


144 

may be lost. The remedy lies in maintaining the supply of 
teachers of ability and conviction and in continuous vigi¬ 
lance in the selection of objectives in educational policy. 

Even where the state or the community are not Christian 
there is often a friendly attitude toward Christian work. 
Where the church has in some cases succeeded in creating a 
satisfactory system of education in her own name, she has 
every right to claim freedom to continue such work. She 
will use to the full this opportunity for training Christian 
leadership. At the same time, as she requires for her own 
members liberty of conscience in non-Christian communi¬ 
ties, so she will respect a like liberty when non-Christians 
come within her institutions. In such schools the church 
must not oppose the claim of the nation to ask for all its 
members a proper loyalty toward the state. She herself 
teaches that we have special responsibilities and affections 
toward the country in which we live. She has an urgent 
task in her own schools in developing the synthesis of the 
appreciation of all that is good in the culture of each nation 
and race with the overruling loyalty to God who is Father 
of all the nations. She must beware of a syncretism which 
loses the distinctive significance of her message, while at the 
same time she must welcome everything in the background 
of each nation which is close to the mind of Christ. 

Already in many countries the state, learning perhaps 
from the example of the church which has pioneered the 
way, and using its larger powers and resources, is often pro¬ 
viding education of a higher standard than is provided in 
Christian schools. Where this is the case, the church must 
regard excellence as in accordance with the mind of God. 
She must not accept a tinge of added piety as an excuse for 
inefficiency. She will not lightly relinquish the advan¬ 
tages in the training of Christian leadership in her own 
schools. She must, however, see that the education which 


Education 


145 

she offers is of the best. Where she cannot achieve this she 
must beware of identifying the name of Christ in the eyes 
of men with the relatively inefficient. By the concentra¬ 
tion of her own resources, she may then in some schools and 
universities both maintain a high level of scholarship and 
pioneer in her special field of Christian thought and wor¬ 
ship. 

In countries where the state is undertaking the work of 
general education, and where it can give no official permis¬ 
sion for Christian teaching in state universities and schools, 
the church may well claim that, on purely academic 
grounds, no education is complete which arbitrarily ex¬ 
cludes one whole field of human experience and history. 
She will recognize that a state in which Christians are a 
minority cannot enforce Christian teaching, but she will 
point out that the education offered would be inadequate, 
unless those who desired to study the Bible and its mes¬ 
sage and its place in human history had some opportunity 
to do so. 

The church may further exercise her influence through 
the teachers in state schools. These may be her members, 
or may be won into her membership. Even if there is no 
place for formal religious instruction, there will be abun¬ 
dant opportunity for Christian work both through personal 
influence and in the manner of presentation of nonre¬ 
ligious subjects. The Christian teacher will not unfairly 
force his religious position, but equally he need not hide 
it. Finally there are the openings for voluntary religious 
work among students to which we have referred in a pre¬ 
vious paragraph. 

In many countries the situation is far less favorable. In 
some the state, while allowing considerable liberty for 
Christian work, yet requires of all members of the nation 
acts of homage in various forms, which may involve a turn- 


The Oxford Conference 


146 

ing aside of that worship which may be given to God alone. 
This claim of the state is accentuated where for temporary 
political reasons the state is anxious to build up an inten¬ 
sive loyalty to itself. Only general principles can here be 
suggested. The church will acknowledge that there is a 
proper patriotism in subordination to the God of all na¬ 
tions. Sometimes the rising tide of national loyalty may 
seem to blind men to the claims of other nations. But there 
is a proper sense of citizenship, and where this is lacking the 
state has the right to promote a greater loyalty to the nation. 
The church will remember that the charge to render to 
Caesar the things that are Caesar’s was first given concern¬ 
ing a non-Christian power. 

The state today frequently insists on retaining all educa¬ 
tion in its own hands. This policy we regard as unfortu¬ 
nate in that it prevents an enriching variety in educational 
work. Even where such state education is Christian, a 
dominant confession may sometimes threaten the freedom 
of religious minorities. Elsewhere the state is using educa¬ 
tion as an instrument of propaganda for inculcating views 
of life which negate the Christian faith. In all cases we 
should claim for the church and for all Christian parents 
the right to instruct their children in what they believe to 
be the truth. The church is at one with all true scholar¬ 
ship in every sphere in insisting that education may not 
submit to the bias of propaganda but must preserve the 
pure and disinterested pursuit of truth. 

In those countries where the present political situation 
is accentuating difficulties, the church will do all she can 
to preserve the favor of the state. In the last resort, how¬ 
ever, she must maintain for her members their liberty of 
conscience and preserve them from idolatry. The early 
church learned to render to Caesar his due, yet suffered 
martyrdom rather than render to Caesar the worship due to 


Education 


147 

God. The Christian may and should give a respect to past 
or present political leaders, but he must withhold worship. 
The point where patriotic reverence becomes idolatry is 
not easy to define. It is the point where an absolute loyalty 
is given to an external human authority rather than to the 
voice of God made known in Christ and in the inward voice 
of conscience and truth. If and where this point is reached, 
Christian teachers and students must and will still be ready 
to suffer persecution. 

When all other openings are forbidden, the church must 
do what she can through parents and through such ministry 
of Christian teachers in homes as she can provide. It is a 
grievous circumscription of her work but it may have to be 
accepted for the present time of hostility to religion. Such 
periods have not in the past been long, and the church may 
hearten herself by recalling her history. Where she is al¬ 
lowed to retain her institutions of learning, these should be 
conserved even if opportunities for Christian influence are 
restricted. She must think not in decades but in genera¬ 
tions. The situation may change, will surely change some 
day, and it is folly to sacrifice strategic centers of Christian 
education. These are times for following a New Testa¬ 
ment precedent — to throw out anchors and wish for the 
day. 

The church’s largest contribution to education, like her 
supreme ministry to human life, is her gospel, with its in¬ 
terpretation of existence and its inspiration to live worthily. 
Where life is without meaning, education becomes fu¬ 
tile. Where it is ignobly conceived, education is debased. 
Where it is viewed in the light of God’s purpose in Christ, 
it assumes divine significance. It is not the methods by 
which her gospel is taught which are of first importance. 
They will differ according to the educational system pre¬ 
ferred by various nations and by various communions in 


The Oxford Conference 


148 

the church. It is all-important that her gospel should sup¬ 
ply the presuppositions of all education, by whatever 
agency it is given, and create the spiritual atmosphere 
which pervades every institution of true learning. “ In thy 
Light shall we see light.” 

SALIENT POINTS 

(1) The church is concerned that every child and adult 
shall receive the fullest education consistent with his ca¬ 
pacities and that no discrimination in educational oppor¬ 
tunity be made on the basis of race or social status. But 
she must make plain that no education is adequate without 
the living encounter with God and the response of per¬ 
sonal faith. 

(2) For any education worthy of the name truth is su¬ 
preme, and there must be freedom to seek and to teach it. 
In some lands governments attempt to control all the agen¬ 
cies which influence belief and behavior. They abridge 
the church’s right to educate her children in the Christian 
faith. She must protest against a state monopoly of educa¬ 
tion and claim liberty to carry on her work through such 
means as youth organizations and institutions for training 
Christian leadership. 

(3) It is the church’s aim to educate free persons under 
law to Christ. Freedom, in her view, is not a natural gift. 
The freedom which she seeks is both liberty from the deceit 
of evil passions within the heart, and the strength of char¬ 
acter to preserve liberty of conscience under external pres¬ 
sure. It is her conviction that personality attains this free¬ 
dom and completeness only in obedience to God. 

(4) While opposed to any deification of the community 
or the state, Christians must sympathize with the effort to 
restore unity in a time of social disintegration and must 
recognize education as a powerful means toward this end. 


Education 


149 

The church is opposed to any education which stimulates 
unbridled individualism and must affirm the basis for social 
solidarity which God has given in the relationships of the 
family and the community. 

(5) A characteristic feature of our time is the response 
made by youth to the appeal of political leaders who offer 
them a part in the building of the nation. This gives a 
sense of community, definiteness of purpose and demand 
upon their whole energies. The complete fulfillment of 
their desires will be found only when Christ is proclaimed 
as Lord and when the church offers them real community 
in devotion to his purpose for mankind. 

(6) There are today both in the older and younger 
churches an immense opening and an immense responsibil¬ 
ity for Christian education. Many more Christian teachers 
are needed; for the spirit of Christ can be conveyed only 
through persons to persons. 

(7) The church must educate those of her members 
who are parents, schoolteachers, professors in institutions of 
higher learning, Sunday school workers and leaders in youth 
organizations and in adult education. These all share in 
her ministry of teaching. She must see to it that her clergy 
are thoroughly equipped with biblical and other theologi¬ 
cal learning and with such knowledge and skill as shall 
make them competent teachers and partners of other teach¬ 
ers in the work of education. 

(8) In considering her task we discover that frequently 
an impediment more serious than any restriction from 
without is the disunion of the church’s own forces. Where 
educational leaders in community and state are eager to 
cooperate with her, they are perplexed by the differing 
proposals of her various communions and embarrassed by 
the rivalries between them. They hesitate to involve pub¬ 
lic institutions in sectarian strife. The lack of a common 


150 The Oxford Conference 

mind on the fundamentals of Christian faith and life has 
thus pushed many states into secularist systems of educa¬ 
tion. If the church is to discharge her teaching duty, she 
must bring her communions into a common front on edu¬ 
cational issues and unite her forces in fulfilling this urgent 
task. 


V. REPORT OF THE SECTION ON THE 
UNIVERSAL CHURCH AND THE 
WORLD OF NATIONS* 


I. THE PRESENT SITUATION 


' A time when the hearts of men fail them for fear, the 



£\ conference calls upon the members of the churches to 
remain steadfast in their faith in God and in Jesus Christ 
the Saviour of all mankind. 

The years that have passed since the close of the World 
War have witnessed a great change in the public temper in 
every land. Problems which the war created, left unsolved, 
or aggravated, have resulted in a state of tension which has 
now found expression in a resurgent nationalism, in selfish 
isolation or in antagonistic national groupings, in rearma¬ 
ment on a colossal scale, and in the universal fear that a 
war which all nations dread is at hand. At the same time 
the economic depression has increased within every nation 
the conviction that it must rely upon itself for its own se¬ 
curity with little regard for considerations of international 
morality. Where even ten years ago there was in a great 
part of the world a spirit of optimistic faith in the creation 
of a true international order, there are now bewilderment 
and dejection. In such a world the duty of the church is to 

* The report, after receiving the approval of the section, was submitted 
to the conference substantially in its present form. The conference received 
the report, referred it back to the section for revision in the light of the 
discussion and commended it to the serious and favorable consideration of 
the churches. The report was revised by the section and approved by it in 
its present form. 


The Oxford Conference 


152 

call all men to repentance, to faith and to a compassionate 
concern for the multitudes who suffer. We need not de¬ 
spair: the world belongs to God; to believe in his power and 
love is not to escape from reality but to stand upon the rock 
of the only certainty that is offered to men. The church 
calls therefore to the world of men, of which it is itself a 
part, not only to rise to a new level of effort and self- 
devotion, but to believe in the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who has overcome the world. 

2. THE ECUMENICAL CHURCH 

A special ground of faith and courage amid the perplexi¬ 
ties of our age is that the Christian church is becoming 
truly ecumenical. The missionary movement of the past 
century carried forward the sense of world mission inherent 
in the biblical records, making the bounds of the Christian 
community coextensive with the habitable globe. This 
movement has been the principal sign that the church was 
alive to the God-given vision of the church universal. 
Moreover the churches are realizing anew that the church 
is one. We say this in full recognition of the fact that be¬ 
tween many of the churches which we represent there is a 
lack of true fellowship, and that the church of Rome is not 
represented in our midst. At the same time, the emergence 
in different parts of the world of political systems usurping 
the role of churches and demanding the absolute allegiance 
of men and women is awakening in Christians in every land 
a deepened loyalty to Christ and the church and a fresh 
sense of their need of solidarity in Christ. 

It is important to bear in mind in this connection the 
fundamental distinction between “ ecumenical ” and “ in¬ 
ternational.” The term “ international ” necessarily ac¬ 
cepts the division of mankind into separate nations as a 


The Universal Church and the Nations 153 

natural if not a final state of affairs. The term “ ecumeni¬ 
cal ” refers to the expression within history of the given 
unity of the church. The one starts from the fact of di¬ 
vision and the other from the fact of unity in Christ. The 
thought and action of the church are international in so far 
as the church must operate in a world in which the his¬ 
torical Christian bodies share with the rest of mankind the 
division into national and racial groups. They are ecu¬ 
menical in so far as they attempt to realize the una sancta, 
the fellowship of Christians who acknowledge the one Lord. 

This fact of the ecumenical character of the church car¬ 
ries with it the important consequence that the church 
brings to the task of achieving a better international order 
an insight which is not to be derived from ordinary politi¬ 
cal sources. To those who are struggling to realize human 
brotherhood in a world where disruptive nationalism and 
aggressive imperialism make such brotherhood seem unreal, 
the church offers not an ideal but a fact, man united not by 
his aspiration but by the love of God. 

True ecumenicity therefore must be the goal of all our 
efforts. Churches must be not simply tolerant one toward 
another but concerned about unity one with the other. 
Very especially at a time when in parts of the world “ some 
members of the body suffer ” and others are still weak, must 
the privileged and stronger members remember the words, 
“ Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of 
Christ.” 

Moreover, lack of unity conflicts seriously with the ulti¬ 
mate and supreme purposes of the church. These purposes 
are and must remain to proclaim the gospel of God’s love 
in Jesus Christ to all mankind, to administer the sacra¬ 
ments, to fulfill the Christian ideal of fellowship and to 
guide the souls of her children in the ways of holiness. No 


The Oxford Conference 


154 

other activity in which she may engage can be a substitute 
for these. For the church is supremely concerned with per¬ 
sons, and world problems have their roots ultimately in 
the hearts of persons who “ must be born again.” She must 
speak therefore in the name of God to the individual men 
and women who make up the nations and must announce 
to them, in language they can understand, the news of the 
world’s Saviour. As the greatest need of the world is new 
men, and the church’s chief opponents in our time aspire 
to change the very structure of human nature in those 
whom they control, the church of Christ throughout the 
world should work unceasingly for human renewal and the 
cure of souls in his name and through his strength “ who 
maketh all things new.” 

At the same time the church has a concern with civiliza¬ 
tion in general. With penitence, on the one-hand, because 
of the share of responsibility belonging to many of her mem¬ 
bers for the present state of the world, with thanksgiving, 
on the other, because she has been herself under God the 
source of some of the chief treasures that the world pos¬ 
sesses, the church must recognize her concern with the secu¬ 
lar order. With her members active in every sphere of life, 
resident in every land, owing allegiance to every form of 
state, the church is concerned with the whole world and the 
whole of life within it. The Christian church, acknowl¬ 
edging Christ’s work of redemption, possesses a unique in¬ 
sight into the problems of human relationship. Knowing 
man and “ what is in man ” Christians will not be elated 
with an unchristian hope; knowing Christ and what is 
“ in Christ ” they will not be cast down with an un¬ 
christian despair. There comes a call to the church to face 
in the light of Christ all the facts that may be gathered 
from every quarter, and thereafter, in the spirit and through 
the grace of Christ, to work for the manifestation of the 


The Universal Church and the Nations 155 

new divine order which appeared in the cross and resur¬ 
rection of the Son of God. 

3. THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE INTERNATIONAL 
ORDER 

Before entering upon the discussion of any of the 
concrete difficulties which face Christians in regard to 
the international order, it is necessary to recall the dual 
aspect of the Christian attitude toward this and all kindred 
problems. 

No international order which can be devised by human 
effort may be equated with the kingdom of God. Much 
of the disillusionment about international affairs to be 
found among Christians is due to the fact that the hopes 
vested in specific schemes for international betterment were 
of an almost religious quality, and it was forgotten that to 
all human institutions clings the taint of sin. 

On the other hand, it is erroneous to hold that our hope 
in the kingdom of God has no bearing upon the practical 
choices that men must make within the present order. The 
attitude of Christians toward specific proposals in the po¬ 
litical sphere should be governed by their obedience to the 
living God and their understanding of his purpose in 
Christ. 

A true conception of international order requires a rec¬ 
ognition of the fact that the state, whether it admits it or 
not, is not autonomous but is under the ultimate govern¬ 
ance of God. This relates not only to its dealings with its 
own citizens but to its dealings with other states and the 
individuals within them. While therefore we recognize 
fully the need for continuous adjustment of international 
arrangements, we assert that the demand for constancy and 
fidelity may be made upon states as well as upon individu¬ 
als. While the trustee responsibility of states differentiates 


156 The Oxford Conference 

their duty from that of individuals, it remains true that 
righteousness exalteth a nation and that nations, like in¬ 
dividuals, are under the judgment of God. 

4. INHERENT DIFFICULTIES IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
INTERNATIONAL ORDER 

We must recognize that relations between states have not 
been brought under the rule of law in the same way as 
relations between citizens or social groups within the bor¬ 
ders of states. The life of the state — or at least of civilized 
or constitutional states — represents a union between law 
and force. Thus is insured the working of two processes, 
separable in theory but inextricably blended in practice — 
the observance and enforcement of the law and the con¬ 
stant and steady development of the law to conform to 
changing social needs. 

When we turn to the field of interstate relations we find 
a very different condition. Here law and force have never 
yet been brought into an effective working partnership. 
The various political units into which the world is divided 
stand side by side without any organic connection. They 
are not merely separate states but separate societies differ¬ 
ing in custom and tradition, in outlook and culture, which 
are among the principal elements that go to the making of 
law and provide law with so much of its authority. Inter¬ 
national law, which is the body of rules laid down in treaties 
and other documents for the conduct of states, is incom¬ 
plete, and has not commanded general respect because it 
originates in a sphere remote from ordinary men and 
women and has not yet been brought into effective touch 
with their social consciousness. Relations between states 
have been and still are conceived and carried on chiefly in 
terms of power. The traditional criterion of what consti¬ 
tutes a “ great power ” is a standing challenge to Christian 


The Universal Church and the Nations 157 

people, more especially to those who are citizens of “ great 
powers.” 

Various means have been suggested on the political plane 
for dealing with this problem. The simplest and most 
radical is to abolish the system of power-relations by sub¬ 
ordinating the concept of independent sovereignty through 
the establishment of a federal system. Another solution, 
attempted in the League of Nations, is to create an organ¬ 
ization providing for constant and regular cooperation be¬ 
tween states, thus promoting common habits and standards 
which may in time form the basis of a common law. 

So far as the present evil is political, the heart of it is to 
be found in the claim of each national state to be judge in 
its own cause. The abandonment of that claim, and the 
abrogation of absolute national sovereignty at least to that 
extent, is a duty that the church should urge upon the 
nations. 

But political remedies of this kind are not enough. The 
evil lies deeper down, in the ingrained habits and attitudes 
which find expression in the power-relationship. Within 
the state, power has been curbed by constitutional checks 
and has been made subject to a sense of responsibility. 
In the international field and often in relationship to colo¬ 
nial dependencies power is still, broadly speaking, irre¬ 
sponsible. It is here that the Christian church and indi¬ 
vidual Christians have an opportunity to bring their in¬ 
fluence to bear upon international relations. For the 
power-relationship is not merely uncivilized: it is also ut¬ 
terly unchristian. “ Render unto Caesar ” is not a counsel 
of acquiescence or of despair. Unless we are prepared to 
cut our life into two utterly separate halves, we must admit 
that it is our duty to do all that in us lies to bring Caesar — 
the traditions and practices of government — to the recog¬ 
nition of his duty to God. 


The Oxford Conference 


158 

All law, international as well as national, must be based 
on a common ethos, that is, a common foundation of moral 
convictions. To the creation of such a common foundation 
in moral conviction the church, as a supra-national society 
with a profound sense of the historical realities and of the 
worth of human personality, has a great contribution to 
make. 


5. THE CONDITIONS OF PEACEFUL CHANGE 

The fact that no superior political agency exists to im¬ 
pose from time to time a new order in international affairs 
to conform to changing needs means not that the existing 
order will remain static but that change can occur in only 
one of two ways: by voluntary action, or by force or the 
menace of force. 

It therefore particularly devolves upon Christians to de¬ 
vote themselves to securing by voluntary action of their 
nations such changes in the international order as are from 
time to time required to avoid injustice and to promote 
equality of opportunity for individuals throughout the 
world. Christian influence to this end cannot be made ef¬ 
fective without adequate factual knowledge. To meet this 
initial need Christians should take measures to obtain in¬ 
formation on world conditions more adequate and reliable 
than that now furnished by the secular and nationalistic 
agencies, which are too prone to ignore or belittle the needs 
of alien peoples or to express those needs in terms of sacri¬ 
fice to be made by nations other than their own. 

Once the need of change is apprehended its accomplish¬ 
ment depends upon governmental action. This will re¬ 
quire of statesmen and politicians a broader vision than 
now exists of the true welfare of their nation. The heads 
of states, under whatever form of government, are ulti- 


The Universal Church and the Nations 159 

mately dependent upon the support of their people who 
must make it clear that they are prepared to accept tem¬ 
porary sacrifices in order that a greater good may ultimately 
emerge. 

The unequal distribution of natural bounties is one of 
the causes of war, if control is used to create a monopoly of 
national advantages. Christian people should move their 
governments to abstain from such policies and to provide 
a reasonable equality of economic opportunity. 

If, however, primary responsibility rests upon those of 
the Christian peoples for whom change means sharing with 
others, some responsibility devolves also upon Christians in 
less fortunate lands. Many voices in all nations are lifted 
in these days in favor of a more just international order and 
the removal of inequalities of opportunity. The achieve¬ 
ment of the practical results can only be retarded if through 
the overeagerness of some the impression is created that 
equality of opportunity is sought not as an end in itself but 
as a means of reversing in their favor inequalities such as 
now exist. 

6 . ATTEMPTS TO ORGANIZE AN INTERNATIONAL ORDER 

(a) The League of Nations. Among the many organ¬ 
izations interested in the achievement of international or¬ 
der the most notable is the League of Nations. While it is 
necessary to recognize that the league has not been able to 
fulfill the hopes which have been reposed in it and that 
decided changes must take place if the league is to be 
brought into greater harmony with international needs and 
with its own ideal, it is important that Christian peoples 
should have a clear conception of its status and character. 

The league is not a government; it cannot take decisions 
except in so far as the constituent governments concur. 


160 The Oxford Conference 

Those who criticize the league for what it has done or failed 
to do are really criticizing the governments of the member 
states or certain particular governments. The tendency 
to endow the league with qualities which it does not or can¬ 
not possess, and therefore to indulge in excessive expecta¬ 
tions, has been responsible for much disillusionment and 
confusion of mind. 

The league is not a church. Its concern is with the world 
of day to day politics and administration. The fact that 
through the league states have pledged themselves to a 
great ideal, that of peace and peaceful cooperation, should 
not lead Christians to identify their hopes with present-day 
realities. However, as a standing agency of cooperation be¬ 
tween fifty or more independent governments the league 
represents the most considerable effort yet made in the 
world’s history to enable the governments to consult to¬ 
gether, to plan together and to act together. It is an attempt 
to establish a system of political interdependence corre¬ 
sponding with the economic interdependence characteristic 
of modem civilization. 

The assertion is frequently made that the league has 
failed. Admittedly the covenant has not been fully ob¬ 
served and vindicated by the states who signed it. The facts 
of the last six years speak for themselves. But the idea on 
which the league was founded—that of international co¬ 
operation— has not been disproved. No alternative con¬ 
ception or method of comparable range has come to light 
in the intervening period, and the need for an agency of 
international cooperation is as great as ever, if not greater. 
Moreover, where in the political field obstacles arising out 
of the system of power politics have not been maintained 
to the extreme point, and where, as in the technical work 
of the league and the international labor organization, such 
obstacles intervene to only a slight extent, much success 


The Universal Church and the Nations 161 

has been achieved. This only emphasizes the fact that the 
real issue that confronts us both at Geneva and elsewhere 
is that of power politics and the attitude of mind which it 
represents. That is the root problem of all international 
politics. Until it is solved the world community so often 
lightly spoken of as a fact must remain an aspiration. 

The league therefore is a means to certain ends. In pro¬ 
portion as these ends are desirable so will their attainment 
make a large demand on those qualities of energy, good 
faith and readiness to pay the price which as we have al¬ 
ready stated are the conditions of effective international 
action. 

(b) Permanent Court of International Justice. Im¬ 
portant also as an instrument for the peaceful settlement of 
justiciable disputes is the Permanent Court of International 
Justice at The Hague. The existence of such a tribunal de¬ 
prives nations of any excuse for having recourse to force for 
the settlement of such disputes as involve the interpretation 
and application of admitted international obligations. 

(c) Treaties. International order not only comes into 
being through world-wide organizations such as those above 
mentioned, but also by arbitration treaties and such other 
agreements as are not exclusive nor based on antagonism 
to other nations. 

(d) The Church as Peacemaker. Nevertheless, while 
giving discriminating support to work for peace and justice 
both political and social through the League of Nations and 
kindred organizations, the church cannot leave the duty of 
peacemaking to political agencies. The church is itself 
called to a ministry of reconciliation in a world riven by 
fears, suspicions and grievances. The church should be 
able by the leading of the Spirit to discover characteristi¬ 
cally Christian ways of intervening as a healing and recon¬ 
ciling influence in a world of conflict. 


162 


The Oxford Conference 


7. THE CHURCH AND WAR 

We approach this part of our subject with a profound 
sense of its urgency and of the inadequacy of the best that 
we can say. We know that multitudes are oppressed by the 
actual menace of war. While we may seek to influence ac¬ 
tions which may avert the immediate danger, our main task 
is to probe the underlying sources of the evil and point to 
the ultimate remedy. 

Here again our starting point is the universal fellowship 
of Christians, the una sancta. All Christians acknowledge 
one Lord, whose claim upon them is such as to transcend all 
other loyalties. Here is the first obligation of the church, 
to be in living fact the church, a society with a unity so 
deep as to be indestructible by earthly divisions of race or 
nation or class. 

Wars, the occasions of war, and all situations which con¬ 
ceal the fact of conflict under the guise of outward peace, 
are marks of a world to which the church is charged to pro¬ 
claim the gospel of redemption. War involves compulsory 
enmity, diabolical outrage against human personality, and 
a wanton distortion of the truth. War is a particular dem¬ 
onstration of the power of sin in this world and a defiance of 
the righteousness of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and 
him crucified. No justification of war must be allowed to 
conceal or minimize this fact. 

In all situations the Christian has to bear in mind both 
the absolute command, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself,” and the obligation to do what most nearly corre¬ 
sponds to that command in the circumstances confronting 
him. His action may be but a poor expression of perfect 
love; the man is caught in a sinful situation, to the evil of 
which he may have contributed much or little. The best 
that is possible falls far “ short of the glory of God ” and is. 


The Universal Church and the Nations 163 

in that sense, sinful; each man must bear his share of the 
corporate sin which has rendered impossible any better 
course; and we all have to confess that “ our righteousnesses 
are as filthy rags.” Yet to do what appears as relatively best 
is an absolute duty before God, and to fail in this is to incur 
positive guilt. 

The search for the will of God is a matter of agonizing 
perplexity for the Christian whose country is involved in 
war. We have to recognize two widely divergent views re¬ 
garding war, along with several that are intermediate. One 
view hopes for the elimination of war by the power of God 
working in history through the religious and moral en¬ 
lightenment of men and the exercise of their free wills; the 
other view regards man as so bound in the necessities of a 
sinful world that war will be eliminated only as a conse¬ 
quence of the return of Christ in glory. 

In practice this divergence issues in three main positions 
which are sincerely and conscientiously held by Christians: 

(1) Some believe that war, especially in its modern 
form, is always sin, being a denial of the nature of God as 
love, of the redemptive way of the cross, and of the com¬ 
munity of the Holy Spirit; that war is always ultimately 
destructive in its effects, and ends in futility by corrupting 
even the noblest purpose for which it is waged; and that the 
church will become a creative, regenerative and reconciling 
instrument for the healing of the nations only as it re¬ 
nounces war absolutely. They are therefore constrained 
to refuse to take part in war themselves, to plead among 
their fellows for a similar repudiation of war in favor of a 
better way, and to replace military force by methods of ac¬ 
tive peacemaking. 

(2) Some would participate only in “ just wars.” Here 
there are at least two points of view, depending upon the 
definition of the “ just war.” The first view holds that 


The Oxford Conference 


164 

Christians should participate only in such wars as are jus¬ 
tifiable on the basis of international law. They believe that 
in a sinful world the state has the duty, under God, to use 
force when law and order are threatened. Wars against 
transgressors of international agreements and pacts are com¬ 
parable with police measures and Christians are obliged to 
participate in them. But if the state requires its citizens to 
participate in wars which cannot be thus justified, they 
believe that Christians should refuse, for the state has no 
right to force its citizens to take part in sinful actions. 
Many would add that no war should be regarded as “ just ” 
if the government concerned fails to submit the subject of 
dispute or casus belli to arbitration, conciliation or judg¬ 
ment of an international authority. 

Those who hold the second view would regard a “ just 
war ” as one waged to vindicate what they believe to be an 
essential Christian principle: to defend the victims of wan¬ 
ton aggression or to secure freedom for the oppressed. 
They would urge that it was a Christian duty, where all 
other means had failed, to take up arms. In so doing they 
would look to the verdict of conscience as their ultimate 
sanction. While recognizing the general importance of 
supporting civil or international order, the maintenance of 
such order in the present imperfect state of society cannot 
be a final obligation. The Christian, though he must be 
willing to accept martyrdom for himself, cannot expose 
others to it by refusing to fight for them. 

(3) Some, while also stressing the Christian obligation 
to work for peace and mutual understanding among the 
nations, hold nevertheless that no such effort can end war 
in this world. Moreover, while recognizing that political 
authority is frequently administered in a selfish and im¬ 
moral way, they nevertheless believe that the state is the 


The Universal Church and the Nations 165 

agent divinely appointed to preserve a nation from the 
detrimental effects of anarchic and criminal tendencies 
among its members, and to maintain its existence against 
the aggression of its neighbors. It is therefore a Chris¬ 
tian’s duty to obey the political authority as far as possible 
and to refrain from everything that is apt to weaken it. 
This means that normally a Christian must take up arms for 
his country. Only when he is absolutely certain that his 
country is fighting for a wrong cause — for example, in 
case of unjustifiable war of aggression — has the ordinary 
citizen a right to refuse military service. 

Of those who hold this view, some would admit that indi¬ 
viduals may be called directly by God to refuse categorically 
to take part in any war and so draw attention to the per¬ 
verted nature of a world in which wars are possible. In 
either case the individual must recognize in principle the 
significance of the state and be willing to accept punishment 
by the authorities for violating the national law. 

We do not affirm that any one of these positions can be 
held to represent the only possible Christian attitude. The 
church must insist that the perplexity itself is a sign of the 
sin in which its members are implicated. It cannot rest in 
permanent acquiescence in the continuance of these differ¬ 
ences but should do all that is possible to promote the study 
of the problem by people of different views meeting to¬ 
gether to learn from one another as they seek to understand 
the purpose of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Recog¬ 
nizing that its members are also called to live within the 
secular state or nation and that in the event of war a conflict 
of duties is inevitable, it should help them discover God’s 
will, should honor their conscientious decisions, whether 
they are led to participate in or to abstain from war, and 
maintain with both alike the full fellowship of the body of 


i66 


The Oxford Conference 


Christ. It should call them to repent and to seek together 
that deliverance from the entangling evil which can be 
found in Christ alone. 

The church must call its members to confess their share 
in the common guilt of mankind for the continuance of 
war and the spirit of war among the nations. Notwith¬ 
standing the notable efforts for peace which have been 
made within the church, clergy and laity alike have not 
done what they ought to have done to remove the causes of 
war by raising their voices against attitudes and policies 
making for war, and have not proclaimed with boldness the 
word of truth in time of war. Moreover they have often 
been guilty of greed, selfishness, distrust, and pride of race 
and nation, thus contributing to the embittering of rela¬ 
tions among the nations. At the same time, the church 
must call its members to give “ diligence to keep the unity 
of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Church members 
should earnestly strive to remove in their own lives every 
attitude and practice deriving from political, social and 
racial differences which are the seeds of war, and should 
seek the fruit of the Spirit, “ love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.” 

The church should remind its members that the princi¬ 
ple of the unconditional supremacy of the state or nation, 
advanced either in time of peace or of war, is incompatible 
with the church’s faith in Jesus Christ as its only Lord and 
is therefore unacceptable as the final norm of judgment or 
action. It is the church’s duty to serve the nation in which 
it is placed, but the greatest service which it can render is 
to remain steadfast and loyal to its Lord and to test rigor¬ 
ously all claims of national interest by his gospel. 

The church, confessing its faith in redemption through 
Jesus Christ, sees in every man a “ brother for whom Christ 
died.” In time of war, as in time of peace, it should pray 


The Universal Church and the Nations 167 

not only for the nation in which God has placed it, but also 
for the enemies of that nation. If Christians in warring na¬ 
tions pray according to the pattern of prayer given by their 
Lord, they will not be “ praying against ” one another. 
The church should witness in word, in sacramental life and 
in action to the reality of the kingdom of God which tran¬ 
scends the world of nations. It should proclaim and obey 
the commandment of the Lord, “ Love your enemies.” 

8. THE CHURCH’S WITNESS 

The contemporary situation in its pathos and complexity 
presents an unprecedented challenge to the Church of 
Christ Universal. In what way shall the church, in loyalty 
to her Lord and her essential nature and with full cog¬ 
nizance of and concern for the world, address herself to the 
existing conditions inside and outside the Christian com¬ 
munity? 

It is essential to remember, if anything effective is to be 
achieved, that Christians should be fully aware of their 
great responsibility to the world, but anxious at the same 
time to discharge this responsibility in a distinctively 
Christian manner. The church herself is the leaven by 
which Christ transforms the life of society and nations. 
There can be no true Christian action which is not rooted 
in full participation in the worship of the church and ani¬ 
mated by zeal for the expression of true community in 
things both spiritual and material. 

With these things in view we submit the following con¬ 
siderations which have a practical bearing upon the witness 
of the church. 

(a) Removal of Racial Barriers. The church dishonors 
its claim to ecumenical reality if it allows, even under the 
pressure of situations of great and genuine difficulty, the 
presence of racial barriers within it. We call attention here 


i68 


The Oxford Conference 


both to the acceptance of the color bar in certain churches 
and to the more widely diffused and less acknowledged evil 
of anti-Semitism, whereby not only have terrible sufferings 
been imposed upon the Jews by states historically Chris¬ 
tian, but membership within the church denied or made 
difficult to those of the race to which our Lord belonged 
after the flesh. 

(b) Religious Freedom. An essential element in a better 
international order is freedom of religion. This is an im¬ 
plication of the faith of the church. Moreover, the ecu¬ 
menical character of the church compels it to view the 
question of religious freedom as an international problem: 
all parts of the church are concerned that religious freedom 
be everywhere secured. We are, therefore, deeply con¬ 
cerned with the limitations that are increasingly being im¬ 
posed in the modern world. We affirm the primary right 
to religious worship and the converse right to refuse com¬ 
pliance with any form of worship unacceptable on grounds 
of conscience. We affirm the right to public witness to re¬ 
ligion and the right to religious teaching especially in the 
nurture of the young. In pleading for such rights we do 
not ask for any privilege to be granted to Christians that is 
denied to others. While the liberty with which Christ has 
set us free can neither be given nor destroyed by any gov¬ 
ernment, Christians, because of that inner freedom, are 
both jealous for its outward expression and solicitous that 
all men should have freedom in religious life. The rights 
which Christian discipleship demands are such as are good 
for all men, and no nation has ever suffered by reason of 
granting such liberties. 

While affirming these principles we deprecate any at¬ 
tempt by Christians to secure under the shelter of the power 
or prestige of their nations any privileges in other countries 
in such matters as civil status, the holding of property or 


The Universal Church and the Nations 169 

language of education. This does not invalidate the rights 
of Christians in their own countries to make such claims as 
they are entitled to make in common with other nationals. 

At the same time we call upon the churches we represent 
to guard against the sin of themselves conniving at repres¬ 
sion of churches and religious bodies of a faith and order 
differing from their own. The ideal of ecumenicity de¬ 
mands that the church in its various branches set an exam¬ 
ple to the world of toleration for all, and specifically for 
members of minority Christian communions. The occa¬ 
sion to further the cause of international understanding 
lies immediately to hand and is within the power of the 
churches to use forthwith, namely, “ to do good to all men 
and especially toward them that are of the household of 
faith.” 

(c) Mutual Church Aid. Ecumenical solidarity implies 
that the churches which are strong in resources should be 
ready to render help to those which are weak or in distress 
anywhere throughout the world. But in every instance 
the required assistance, whether money, counsel or leader¬ 
ship, should be given without an accompanying claim to 
the right to dominate. Particularly the younger churches, 
which are the fruit of the church’s missionary effort, have 
special claim upon the concern of the Christian church. 

(d) Ecumenical Education. The church is by nature 
ecumenical, but few of its members have as yet come to 
realize the full implication of this fact. In order to give 
content to this Christian affirmation we must attempt to 
educate church members in the understanding of the actual 
witness, life and problems of other churches than their 
own. Theological faculties and seminaries have a particu¬ 
larly important task in this connection. They should in¬ 
troduce into their program the study of the contemporary 
theology — dogmatic as well as practical — of all branches 


The Oxford Conference 


170 

of the Christian church and enable their students to enter 
into personal contact with the church life of other confes¬ 
sions and in other countries. The future of the ecumenical 
movement depends largely on whether a generation of 
Christians can be formed, who, while rooted in their own 
traditions, are willing by much patience, scrupulous fair¬ 
ness and also by critical insight and complete frankness to 
labor for a deeper understanding between the churches. 

(e) Education for Peace. The churches should employ 
the agencies of Christian education, alike in the nurture of 
children and in the guidance of adult members, to “ fol¬ 
low after the things which make for peace/’ This should 
include a study of world problems and contemporary 
movements in the light of Christian truth. It should seek 
to counteract the influence of current propaganda, with its 
deliberate distortion of truth and its sinister glorification 
of war, by fostering a true understanding of peoples of 
different racial and national background and by guiding 
the energy of the members of churches into effective chan¬ 
nels that may influence national policies in the direction of 
peace. In lands where states, either as a result of conquest 
or treaty or through mandates, govern subject peoples it is 
incumbent upon the Christian churches to bear insistent 
witness to the spiritual dangers inherent in this relation¬ 
ship and to insist that the welfare of those peoples is a sacred 
trust to be exercised under the judgment of God. Public 
administration in such countries should be directed to¬ 
ward preparing the people for a progressive share in the 
affairs of government. 

(f) Disarmament. The churches should constantly 
warn their members of the grave danger involved in the 
feverish and uncontrolled race for rearmament, as both a 
symptom and a source of irresponsible power politics, and 
should insist upon the need and practical possibility of limi- 


The Universal Church and the Nations 171 

tation and progressive reduction of armaments by confer¬ 
ence and multilateral agreement. , 

(g) Ecumenical Organization. We commend with 
thankfulness the efforts of these movements which are work¬ 
ing for the cause of international understanding through 
the churches. We rejoice in the decision taken by the con¬ 
ference to recommend the creation of a world council of 
churches and we urge that the study of the problems dealt 
with in this report be included in its aims. 


ADDITIONAL REPORT OF THE SECTION 
ON CHURCH AND COMMUNITY * 


1 . INTRODUCTION 


he Christian church is called upon today to fulfill 



_L its mission amidst a distraught and disunited man¬ 
kind. Divisions and conflicts within human society there 
have always been. But in the past these have been in the 
nature of tensions or strains, of varying intensity, within 
general frameworks of social unity which have persisted. 
In general the foundations of communal life in commonly 
accepted systems of customs, moral and cultural values and 
religious beliefs have remained firm. Today, as probably 
only once or twice before in human history, the foundations 
themselves are shaken. As a result, the corporate life of 
mankind has been thrown into confusion and disintegra¬ 
tion and this social disunity is reflected in the lives of indi¬ 
vidual men and women, whose personal destiny is largely 
bound up with their relation to the community. Suffering, 
frustration and a baffled sense of the futility and meaning¬ 
lessness of existence characterize personal living. Though 

* This report was not submitted to the full conference. It is based 
on the original draft prepared before the conference and issued to all dele¬ 
gates. It has been largely rewritten in parts as a result of the discussions 
in the section. The general changes proposed in the original draft were 
submitted to the section at its final meeting. The section gave its general 
approval to the proposed changes and authorized the drafting committee 
to make the final revision. The main lines of the revised draft were dis¬ 
cussed and settled in considerable detail by the committee and a good deal 
of the new matter, including the section on “ Race,” was approved in its 
present form by the committee. The task of final revision was entrusted 
to the chairman of the section and was completed after the conference. 


Additional Report — Church and Community 173 

more marked in some sections of mankind than in others, 
these facts are in some measure universal. 

The vigorous attempts in many countries to restore social 
unity by drastic control and regimentation and by declar¬ 
ing national or class unity the supreme good, supreme over 
all else, only confirm this judgment. They bear witness to 
the primal need of human life for community and fellow¬ 
ship and to the tragic extent to which these have been lost 
in the present age. 

In the midst of such a world, tom and disrupted and 
feverishly seeking a way out of its troubles, the Christian 
church stands and must fulfill its task. What is it to say? 
How is it to act? What is its understanding of the deeper 
meaning of the present situation of mankind? What, if 
any, is its wisdom for the healing of corporate disintegra¬ 
tion and the restoration of sound and lasting community? 
What are individual Christians to believe and to do? It is 
with these questions that our report is concerned. 

2. analysis of the existing situation 

(a) Social Disintegration. The most general and the 
most significant phenomenon in the world of 1937 is the 
dissolution of the spiritual bonds and accepted organizing 
principles which have hitherto controlled and given mean¬ 
ing to the common life. This is due largely to the new 
ease of intercommunication among the peoples of the earth 
by train, steamer, airplane and telegraph. In particular, 
the shock of the impact of the West on the civilizations of 
the East and on the primitive peoples of Africa and Aus¬ 
tralia has been catastrophic. Everywhere men are brought 
into contact with whole peoples who do not share their un¬ 
conscious assumptions and their habitual ways of feeling 
and acting. Their common customs are no longer carried 
on by the momentum of an unquestioned tradition. And, 


The Oxford Conference 


174 

lately, the disintegration has been immensely speeded up 
by a cheap press and cheap literature, the cinema and the 
wireless. “ The world has become a unity and for this high 
destiny mankind is not yet fit.” 

Another cause is the large-scale character of modern life. 
Thus, large-scale economic organization determines where 
and how vast masses of the population shall live. They 
quit villages for the great cities and are perpetually influ¬ 
encing and influenced by those with whom they have no 
personal contact. Owing to the size and complication of 
modern life, the major events are the total result of the 
pursuit by myriads of their own small, self-centered pur¬ 
poses. But no one has planned them as a whole and they 
come to the individual as fate. Personal responsibility is so 
widely diffused that it ceases to be felt. 

These changes are not altogether evil. Often release 
from the control of tradition has opened the way for volun¬ 
tary and purposeful associations with standards more in¬ 
telligent and loyalties more vital just because they are freely 
chosen. This is particularly true of the growing emanci¬ 
pation of women. Thus the common man has been en¬ 
abled to give freer play than before to his sympathies and 
to take a more active part in the molding of social condi¬ 
tions. Moral discipline may be the truer for being self- 
imposed. 

But it is the sinister effects of the breakup of the old order 
of life that are more obvious. In many areas life and liveli¬ 
hood have become insecure through the menace of war and 
unemployment. Thus the unemployed man is uprooted. 
He no longer knows his place, for he has no clear function 
in the world in which he is no longer at home. His life has 
lost its meaning; he is frustrated and has no outlet for his 
normal energies. He has no clear direction for effort and 
no guarantee that effort is worth-while. He is typical in 


Additional Report — Church and Community 175 

that he is abruptly called to live in a new and strange en¬ 
vironment, adjustment to which may be the work of many 
generations. 

Behind this physical insecurity lies a deeper spiritual in¬ 
security. Everywhere the old standards of conduct are de¬ 
caying because the convictions on which they rested have 
ceased to be held. The old loyalties and pieties have lost 
their unquestioned authority and no new ones have taken 
their place. Men are unstable, febrile, ill at ease, unsure 
of themselves or of how they want to live and what social 
obligations they will recognize. Thus the spiritual unity 
of the community is disturbed; for where no common 
standards can be assumed, men cannot trust or reckon on 
the actions of their neighbors. Both the individual and the 
community have “ gone to pieces.” 

This disintegration is naturally most acute among the 
primitive peoples, especially those of Africa, on whom the 
impact of the West has fallen with shattering force, involv¬ 
ing “ the complete and rapid destruction of their spiritual 
and social and consequently of their moral life.” But it is 
acute also in the East, and it is extensive in “ Christendom,” 
as is shown conspicuously in regard to the family. For cen¬ 
turies in the Christian West the rule of monogamy, though 
often broken in practice, was generally accepted in princi¬ 
ple. Now, though the convention lingers, in very wide and 
apparently widening circles it has little moral reality be¬ 
hind it. 

(b) Contemporary Attempts to Reconstruct Social and 
Moral Life. In many countries deliberate and sustained 
efforts are being made to take hold of and remold the com¬ 
mon life. For Russian communism these efforts are based 
on complete devotion to a classless and equalitarian society 
that knows no national barriers. Corporate life is to be 
planned anew on severely rational principles. Impetus is 


1^6 The Oxford Conference 

derived from the exhilarating sense of a fresh start and the 
opening up of boundless possibilities. Sectional and na¬ 
tional loyalties are to be entirely subordinated to the inter¬ 
est of the one overwhelming loyalty to the massed proletar¬ 
iat, and the rubbish of the past is to be cleared away to 
make room for a completely new building designed 
throughout for the purpose it is to fulfill. Equality and 
fraternity, if not liberty, are to be established and privilege 
is to disappear. All individuals or groups which stand in 
the way of the realization of this order are to be eliminated 
ruthlessly during the transitional period. Thus men are to 
master their destiny. 

More commonly the nation is itself the basis of recon¬ 
struction. In Japan, China, India, Turkey, Egypt, Ger¬ 
many, Italy, Ireland and in many other countries, national 
patriotism is the dominant rallying and unifying force 
which wins the passionate devotion especially of the young. 
In these countries art and literature, manners, sport and 
physical culture take a strongly nationalistic color. The 
nation itself is recognized as the supreme object of devotion 
and therefore as the authoritative source of the established 
conventions of conduct which make possible an orderly 
social life. 

Here, in contradiction to communism, the heritage of the 
past is highly prized. Modern nationalism is a deliberate 
revival of ancient loyalties and pieties. Alterations, if re¬ 
quired at all, must be made “ in the style of the building.” 
The sense of continuity with a remote past and a remote 
future gives significance and dignity to the life of the pres¬ 
ent generation, which is aware of privilege in being the in¬ 
heritor of a spiritual treasure of distinctive character and 
aware of responsibility for its unimpaired transmission to 
posterity. 

If the evolution of society during the last few centuries 


Additional Report — Church and Community 177 

has been from corporate solidarity to individual self-deter¬ 
mination, modern nationalism aims at a reversion to a 
position in which men’s rights and duties spring naturally 
out of their station in the community. Instead of the indi¬ 
vidual’s being solicited by a multitude of competing claims 
between which he himself has to arbitrate, the national 
community itself is to be the sole source of standards and 
values. The freedom of the individual to manage his own 
life as he will is deliberately sacrificed to social cohesion. 
That sacrifice is frequently voluntary and joyful because 
the freedom of the individual has too often proved to be a 
freedom of vacuity, like the “ freedom ” of the unemployed 
man to spend his time as he will. The individual sur¬ 
renders his freedom gladly to the community which 
demands his uncritical obedience and loyalty but in 
return gives him an object in life and direction and the 
exhilaration of comradeship in the service of a common 
purpose. 

Since man is more than mind and the nation is more than 
an association for definable purposes, the appeal of nation¬ 
alism is made not only to the reason but to the whole man, 
including the emotions and the semiconscious springs of 
action. Liberal use is made of myth and symbol. As rep¬ 
resentative of the nation, the emperor in Japan and the 
Fiihrer in Germany, like the “ throne ” in the British em¬ 
pire, are held in mystical veneration. A form of salute, a 
national anthem, a flag, the funeral of an “ unknown war¬ 
rior ” are all used for the purpose of evoking enthusiasm. 
With this is connected the religious quality of the devotion, 
the absolute and unconditional character of the self-sur¬ 
render to the nation, which has the intensity of devotion 
and self-sacrifice expected of a soldier in time of war and 
which is given with a faith that far transcends what can be 
justified on purely rational grounds. 


The Oxford Conference 


178 

Nationalism implies a concentration and its fraternity 
has clearly defined frontiers. It has often arisen in or been 
stimulated by a “ war of liberation ” in conscious opposi¬ 
tion to foreign domination. After the World War, for in¬ 
stance, exhaustion and despair in the losing countries were 
commonly intensified by the crushing burdens of the peace 
treaties, and the resulting disintegration led to upheavals 
which were soul-stirring. The warmth of brotherhood felt 
among those who are within the circle is matched by the 
coldness or hostility toward those who are without. As 
with communism, there is ruthlessness toward individuals 
or groups who are obstacles to the closing of the ranks and 
there is a deliberate turning of the back upon cosmopolitan 
sympathies. 

While nationalism has endeavored to revive ancient sim¬ 
plicities and pieties, it has been modern in its use toward 
that end of all the means of propaganda and mass sugges¬ 
tion made possible in recent years by science — press, 
cinema, wireless, etc. It has had great success in restoring 
vitality and confidence. Whether the reintegration effected 
has been on too narrow a basis and at the cost of dispropor¬ 
tionate strains and stresses, it is too early yet to pronounce 
on empirical grounds. 

(c) The Seeming Exceptions . The so-called demo¬ 
cratic countries either did not participate in the World War 
or came out of it as victors. Naturally there have not been 
manifested in them such patent and vehement social con¬ 
vulsions as elsewhere and no such cataclysmic adjustments 
have followed. On the surface their social institutions and 
traditions exhibit a less radical breach of continuity. The 
current canons of individual and social behavior are in part 
derived from Christian sources and even when the theology 
that lay behind them has ceased to be generally believed, 
the old conception of the moral law and some of the old 


Additional Report — Church and Community 179 

reverence for it still linger. Secularization has been less 
thorough and systematic than elsewhere. 

But the difference has been one more of appearance than 
of reality. Here too the forces of dissolution are at work. 
The old standards are crumbling, especially for the younger 
generation; and even with the elders it is doubtful whether 
more than the outside of the cup and platter are really 
cleansed. The traditional way of life has no vital philoso¬ 
phy behind it. The great majority of those people who 
never enter a place of worship, and very many of those who 
do, hold with conviction neither the Christian nor any 
other Weltanschauung. Behind a facade of not entirely 
hypocritical conformity there are only confusion and half¬ 
beliefs. To a large extent this generation is living on its 
moral capital: it is living on the faith of its ancestors with¬ 
out having a faith of its own. It is drifting; and as in poli¬ 
tics, so in regard to the whole order of community life, the 
initiative seems for the time to have passed to others. But 
here, too, before long, crucial decisions will have to be 
faced. 


3. ITS CHALLENGE TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

(a) The Deeper Meaning of the Present Disintegration . 
The church is under obligation to proclaim the truth that 
the disintegration of society has one fundamental cause. 
Men are at odds with themselves and with one another be¬ 
cause they are at odds with their Maker. Mankind is sick 
primarily because, being made by and for God, they are 
doing violence to their own nature by striving to live with¬ 
out God. They ignore both his imperious claims and his 
gracious gifts. The only remedy for this sickness and the 
only genuine reintegration and possibility of true commu¬ 
nity lies in their return to God in whom alone is their peace 
and their well-being. 


180 The Oxford Conference 

For several centuries the most dynamic forces in Euro¬ 
pean civilization have been informed by a secularist revolt 
against the traditional Christian presuppositions on which 
the culture of Europe was founded. The original inten¬ 
tion of this secularization in its most vital period was to 
establish a more genuinely universal community than 
Christianity had achieved. The elimination of religious 
bigotry and prejudice by disinterested intelligence was to 
make possible a universal culture and civilization based on 
generally accepted national standards of life and conduct. 
But in the event, this universalism has degenerated into an 
even more grievous particularism and parochialism than 
anything known in the Christian ages. European civiliza¬ 
tion is torn today by conflicts within and between nations 
through which the last vestiges of a common mind and com¬ 
mon standards are being destroyed. Nations and classes 
are arrayed against one another, armed with world views 
and standards of conduct so incompatible that their com¬ 
mon humanity is obscured and respect for one another 
denied. 

This is the nemesis of an overestimate of the power and 
self-sufficiency of human reason. Secularists failed to take 
account of its finite and creaturely character and of the de¬ 
gree to which all its judgments are influenced by human 
interests and passions as well as by special historical circum¬ 
stances and economic or biological conditions. 

So man’s supposedly universal judgments are discovered 
on inspection to be very particular and partial judgments 
derived from his own peculiar perspectives. But just be¬ 
cause of their false claim to universality they become “ de¬ 
monic ” 1 'and give rise to monstrous spiritual pretensions 

i “ The demonic is something finite, something limited, which puts on 
infinite, unlimited dignity. Its demonic character is evident therein, that 
sooner or later another finite reality with the same claim will stand in op¬ 
position to it.” (Tillich) 


Additional Report — Church and Community 181 

and fanatical fury against those who fail to share their 
habits, convictions and desires. 

(b) The Church's 2 Share in Responsibility for the Pres¬ 
ent Situation and its own Need for Repentance and Amend¬ 
ment. Most lamentably the church’s prophetic message to 
the world of today is discredited in advance. This is due 
not merely to the world’s hardness of heart but to the 
church’s own default. The modern situation is indeed 
God’s call not only to the world but to a church which has 
been content to preach the redeeming word without the 
costly redeeming deed. This must be frankly recognized 
if that message is to be presented with any hope of carrying 
conviction. 

What reason, for example, has the church given the 
world to believe that it has the secret of true community in 
him whom it preaches and professes to serve? The life of 
the church is deeply infected with the very ills from which 
humanity suffers. The divisions and conflicts of mankind 
have been reproduced and even justified within its borders. 
Again and again Christian groups have persecuted and 
sought to destroy one another and with equal guilt have 
persecuted men of other faiths — and this is still happening 
today. Thus a satanic element has entered the life of the 
church. A more genuine comradeship is sometimes to be 
found in non-Christian movements than in the Christian 
bodies. 

Moreover, in relation to the modern world, the church 
has made one shameful and disastrous retreat. It has relied 
too exclusively on its priestly character and has tended to 
forget its prophetic mission. It has acquiesced in a situation 
in which religion is regarded as a specialized activity which 

2 By the “ church ” is here meant not the body of Christ — one, holy, 
catholic — but simply organized Christianity, that recognizable institution 
among other institutions whose doings the historian records. 


182 


The Oxford Conference 


does not and need not engage the interest of all and the 
gospel as simply the means of spiritual comfort for the indi¬ 
vidual. In large tracts of their lives Christians have failed 
to make their discipleship a reality; they have made clear 
neither to themselves nor to others the meaning of the gos¬ 
pel of redemption for the corporate life of mankind. Thus 
whether the church is treated outwardly with respect or 
with contempt it has ceased to affect vitally the lives of the 
larger part of the population even in the Christian West. 
It does not seem to them to have anything to say that is 
really relevant to the major interests and concerns. Thus 
the Christian religion is too commonly regarded neither 
with veneration nor with active hostility but with a tolerant 
indifference, as merely the hobby of those who happen to 
be inclined that way. 

The root cause of the ineffectiveness of organized Chris¬ 
tianity is the same as that of the present plight of the world, 
namely godlessness. But here it takes the more subtle form 
not of intentional denial or neglect of God but of taking his 
name in vain. Our basic failure has been a failure in whole¬ 
hearted obedience and self-surrender to God, and this has 
been and is due to the insidious influence of individual and 
group egoism through which we mistake our own wills for 
the will of God and profanely invoke the name and author¬ 
ity of Christ in favor of prejudices and purposes that are all 
too human. The ultimate spiritual sin is to seek to use God 
instead of being used by him; and it is a sin to which all 
who undertake any enterprise in his name are constantly 
prone. Thus Christians have too easily identified — and 
have led the world to identify — the overlordship of God 
with the overlordship of the church, and it is in great 
measure their fault if the world’s revolt, often largely 
justified, against the officers and members of the church has 
involved also a suicidal revolt against God. 


Additional Report — Church and Community 183 

Today, therefore, Christians are called to a new sincerity 
of surrender to God of all that they have and are, not ex¬ 
cluding their own most cherished prepossessions. They 
must not approach the world with the righteous indigna¬ 
tion and the conscious superiority of prophets whose un¬ 
heeded warnings have now been proved true. Individually 
or corporately they can approach it with inward truth or 
with hope of conviction only if they do so as fellow prodi¬ 
gals who have indeed sinned more deeply in that they have 
sinned against the light, yet who have at last set their faces 
steadfastly to return to their father’s house. 

(c) The Changed Relation of the Church to the Com¬ 
munity. This relation has had three main phases. The 
church originally came into the world as a tiny minority in 
the great Roman Empire. On the general community life 
of the ancient world, its manners and morals and institu¬ 
tions, the church of the catacombs could have no formative 
influence. Its only responsibility was for conforming or 
refusing to conform, for submission or for passive resist¬ 
ance. The second phase dates from the conversion of Con¬ 
stantine. A long process of permeation then began which 
culminated in the great conception of the corpus Christia- 
num. A Christian world was envisaged based on a uni¬ 
versal acceptance of Christian standards. All spheres of 
life were to be organized as a harmonious system under the 
domination of Christian standards and the supernatural 
guidance of the church. 

But we are now living in a third phase. Since the Renais¬ 
sance the secular order has gradually established its inde¬ 
pendence of ecclesiastical control. The church is no longer 
authoritative and dominant, it is only one among the many 
influences and movements of the modern world. Today 
convinced Christians are everywhere in a minority in a 
predominantly unchristian world. For the relation of the 


The Oxford Conference 


184 

church to the community the mission field is now norma¬ 
tive. The relation of the church in China to Chinese life 
is more typical than the relation of the church in Britain to 
British life; indeed the inner reality in Britain may be more 
like that in China than is commonly suspected. It is partly 
a sign and partly a cause of this change that large spheres 
of the common life, such as schools, universities and hospi¬ 
tals, in which for the Western world the church was once 
pioneer and controller, have been taken over for the most 
part by the community; and thus the church has lost much 
of its touch with the common life. It has lost channels of 
self-expression and of service to the community in which it 
could embody in deed and not merely preach in word some¬ 
thing of the love of God. 

The church has not yet faced the new situation with suf¬ 
ficient frankness. With the conservative instincts of all 
institutions of long standing and influence it has fought a 
defensive — and on the whole a losing — battle for the 
maintenance of as much as possible of the old ideal of the 
corpus Christianum and of the privileges and authority 
which that implies. But such a policy is doubly mistaken. 
First, it is quite unrealistic. The younger churches have 
never wielded such an authority, and for the older churches 
it is irrevocably gone — at least for the present era. Second, 
the ideal itself, though magnificent, was mistaken and pre¬ 
mature. In practice it entailed more accommodation of the 
church to the world than of the world to the church. The 
present estrangement of the church from the world is not 
due only to the torpidity of Christians. It is indeed actually 
deepened by the outburst of new spiritual life in the church 
during the last hundred and fifty years as shown in the great 
missionary movements and in the quickened social con¬ 
science of Christians. For these make membership in the 
church more costly and mere conformity less attractive. 


Additional Report — Church and Community 185 

Thus the church finds itself today in a new relation to 
the community in which precedent is an insufficient guide. 
Domination it cannot have and possibly ought not to desire. 
Its present task is missionary even more than it is pastoral. 
In new circumstances it is challenged to find a new under¬ 
standing of its duty to the common life. How far, for ex¬ 
ample, should it attempt to guide that life in regard to such 
matters as marriage, caste, the treatment of children and of 
animals? Amid the widespread disintegration, the appear¬ 
ance in many countries of new and active centers of moral 
and social authority on a secular and mostly on a nationalist 
basis, the survival in others of a somnolent semi-Christi¬ 
anity, and, on the other hand, the signs of a fresh stirring 
of the Spirit in the life of the church itself, what is the re¬ 
sponsibility in each country of the Christian body? 

(d) The Challenge of the New Faiths. In a time of 
spiritual chaos, the new faiths are vehement human en¬ 
deavors to reintegrate life round a center. They evoke 
sentiments of loyalty, comradeship, self-discipline and self- 
sacrifice; and so far the church must welcome them. 

But though communism and nationalism are utterly op¬ 
posed to each other in their driving impulses and purposes, 
yet from a Christian standpoint they are exactly alike in 
one fundamental respect: they both constitute pseudo¬ 
religions. They claim to be the sole ultimate source and 
authority for the life of the individual and the community 
in all departments and they are resolutely bent on asserting 
this claim with ruthless intolerance and force. They put 
the classless society or the nation, its greatness and self- 
willed destiny, in the place of God. So they are essentially 
militant forms of idolatry because they claim for themselves 
what is due only to God, the Creator and Redeemer of all 
life. Such a claim can only be utterly repudiated and ir¬ 
reconcilably opposed by the Christian church in the name 


i86 


The Oxford Conference 


of God and for the sake of the whole human community it 
is called to serve. There is no hope in the ascription of 
sacred quality to nation or state or class. A false sacred, a 
false god, merely adds demonic power to the unredeemed 
passions of men. Though bringing about a temporary and 
local unity, it prepares for mankind an even worse and 
wider conflict. The church must call every individual or 
nation to obey God’s will and live by his mercy. In no 
other way can a real reintegration be found. 

Further, in so far as the community is cemented by the 
fostering of common antipathies, the new faiths challenge 
the second of the great Christian commandments. Such an 
attitude is incompatible with the Christian’s duty to love 
his neighbor as himself. It is indeed the more unchristian 
when, in different countries, Negroes, outcastes, Jews or 
bourgeois are the objects of this antipathy on account not 
of any individual demerit but simply of their membership 
of a class. At the same time it is to be recognized that the 
appeal of the new faiths is often due to failures in organized 
Christianity itself. Christians have been guilty of dullness 
of heart, so that the oppressed have turned to others for 
help. The inertia and vagueness of the churches and their 
remoteness from the common life have often exhausted 
men’s patience, so that they have turned from the way of 
Christ to the way of force. Hence these new religions chal¬ 
lenge the church to face realistically, in the name of Christ’s 
love, those social evils which others seek to abolish in vio¬ 
lence and hate. 

(e) The Impersonal Character of Modern Life. This 
challenge to the church is deeply affected by the predomi¬ 
nance of the impersonal in modern life. In a world of so¬ 
cial disintegration and of outer and inner insecurity in 
which men’s hearts are failing them for fear the cry, “ Save, 
Lord, or we perish,” becomes insistent. It is more than 


Additional Report—Church and Community 187 

individual faults and follies that have to be overcome. The 
social systems and institutions by which individuals are 
largely molded, indeed the whole framework of our lives, 
seem to have gone so awry that calamity and moral havoc 
are constantly being wrought by the sum of the actions of 
ordinary well meaning men. It is a question whether there 
is not a demonic element at work here and principalities 
and powers to be wrestled with. Human society’s need for 
superhuman guidance and support is specially plain at this 
time. 

But does the Christian gospel give any such guidance? 
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Has the simple 
Galilean world of direct personal relationships among a 
small number of friends and neighbors a message for the 
great society of today? If a man, loving God with all his 
heart and soul, is to love his neighbor as himself; if the 
Christian key to human living is the personal responsible, 
man-to-man (Ich und Du) relationship of brothers within 
the same Christian family — how is that to be applied in 
this world of large-scale organization, of complicated group 
relationships and of diffused responsibility? How is das 
Gebot to be obeyed in the existing Ordnungen? 

4. THE CHRISTIAN POSITION ANALYZED 

All Christian thinking about community must start from 
the church itself. The church is not just one more form of 
human gregariousness and association, one more attempt 
on the part of men to find a way of living together. It has 
come into being through God’s gift of Jesus Christ as the 
Saviour of men in all their sinful impotence to find the true 
way of life. In the purpose of God it is the community of 
the followers of Christ redeemed by him and therefore 
called by him to be, since Pentecost, his witness and the 
chief instrument of his redeeming work in the world. It is 


i88 


The Oxford Conference 


thus itself God’s special gift to men of community in spite 
of all the divisiveness of human selfishness. It is one body 
because it has one Head, and the life of the whole body and 
of every member is derived from communion with Christ. 
It is thus to be “a colony of heaven ” in a fallen world, 
exemplifying by contrast the true way of human living; and 
its members are to be men inwardly constrained in loyal 
and thankful obedience to their Master to exhibit his spirit 
of sacrificial love in every sphere of their lives. Though in 
practice the institutional church has constantly belied this 
its essential character, the presupposition of all else that it 
attempts is that the church should really be the church. It 
can discharge its mission to the world only if it is continu¬ 
ally renewing and deepening its own inner life in humble 
contrition and adoring gratitude. 

(1) The General Impact of Christianity upon the Com¬ 
mon Life 

What duty has the Christian church toward the general 
social life of the world, its institutions, civilization and cul¬ 
ture? Should Christians, individually and corporately, play 
a responsible part in this life? How far should they seek to 
remold it and on what principles? Amid the general chaos 
can or should the church seek to be a center of integration 
for the whole variegated and tumultuous life of the world? 
And what should be its relation to other partial centers of 
integration? What should be the impact of the church on 
the mass of traditions and prejudices, of unwritten codes 
and taboos by which in fact the community endeavors to 
direct its life — that is, the standards of decency, of what is 
done and what is not done, which most men actually apply 
in judging themselves and their fellows and by the gradual 
accumulation of which the normal routine of an orderly 
life has been formed? How far should it bless them and 


Additional Report—Church and Community 189 

how far curse? In the background too are the rational sys¬ 
tems which moral philosophers have tried to find underly¬ 
ing current moral practice and precept and providing at 
once a justification for them and a criterion for their fur¬ 
ther development. Of all these it is necessary to ask: What 
responsibilities have Christians in regard to them and 
what status or standards for criticizing them? And on what 
terms are Christians to live with their non-Christian or 
semi-Christian neighbors and to take part in the common 
life? These questions are perennial, but the answers have 
ever to be sought anew in a changing world. The special 
form which the question takes today is due to the general 
crumbling of traditional morality which in many circles 
seems to leave sincerity as the only virtue and hypocrisy as 
the only vice. 

The answers will be much affected by the answers to cer¬ 
tain theological questions: How far has God been at work, 
how far is his will to be discerned, in the development of 
civilization outside the immediate circle of the Christian 
church and the specific Christian revelation — in Greek 
ethics, in Roman law, in Teutonic ethos and institutions, 
in the traditional cultures and communal relationships of 
the ethnic religions, in the Oriental sense of the predomi¬ 
nant importance of the things that are unseen, and in that 
which is more primitive and universal than them all, 
namely, the agelong traditional life of the tillers of the soil, 
their routine and simple pieties? How far are these things 
gifts of God or indirect revelations of him? All these ques¬ 
tions are at once more urgent and more difficult when, as 
now, the secular order of life, its conventions and convic¬ 
tions, are themselves apparently in dissolution. 

These questions must be asked, but the church is not yet 
in a position to give to them any clear and united answer. 
Before it can do so, a much more thoroughgoing and pro- 


The Oxford Conference 


190 

longed examination and interchange of ideals will be neces¬ 
sary. It is only possible now to prepare the ground for this 
answer and to narrow down the area of uncertainty by indi¬ 
cating certain governing principles. 

First, Christ is the absolute Lord of all life. His sover¬ 
eignty is not constitutional or limited or shared. His writ 
does not cease to run “ east of Suez ” or in time of war or in 
the complexities of modern civilization. His command¬ 
ment is not merely a pathetic overstatement of principles 
which are too easily ignored. He is not one among a num¬ 
ber of prophets and we do not look for another. For the 
Christian church the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is 
finally authoritative in every department of life. What¬ 
ever authority conflicts with this is a usurpation. In the 
sphere of practical life this is the fundamental principle 
which is safeguarded by the orthodox assertion of the di¬ 
vinity of Christ. 

But, second, though for Christians the gospel must 
transcend and dominate, it does not supersede all ethical 
knowledge and practice derived from other sources. In a 
fully Christian world all the activities of life would be sub¬ 
jected to and judged by the gospel but not all would be 
directly derived from it. God has created the whole world 
and has been at work in it elsewhere than in consciously 
Christian circles. Nowhere has he left himself without 
witness, though that witness is distorted by human corrup¬ 
tion. Thus in industry and commerce, art and literature, 
sport and many other spheres of social life the bulk of the 
legitimate aims and activities and of the common duties is 
not directly derived from the Bible, but from secular tradi¬ 
tions, professional codes, general reasoning, etc. For ex¬ 
ample, the creation of good music must be deemed to be in 
accordance with God’s will, yet good music does not mean 
pious and edifying music but musical music. Such aims 


Additional Report — Church and Community 191 

and duties may well be recognized also by non-Christians 
and by halfhearted Christians; though for the Christian 
they are not absolute but are always subject to criticism 
and overruling in the light of the Christian gospel, and, in 
any case, it is the Christian gospel which will ultimately 
govern the ways in which these different activities are in¬ 
tegrated in the lives of Christian individuals and commu¬ 
nities. 

Beyond this point Christians are still deeply divided. 
Toward the ways of living and standards of behavior ap¬ 
proved by current social convention and adapted to the 
disciplining of “ the average sensual man,” some judge that 
as Christians they must be revolutionary in their attitude, 
others that as Christians they should in the main be ac¬ 
quiescent. This division is the chief hindrance to united 
Christian action in social life. 

Large numbers of the most devoted Christians hold that 
the following of Christ, once undertaken, implies that 
agape, the essential Christian attitude, is to be the guiding 
principle in all relations of life. Christians therefore must 
not join or acquiesce in corporate action that is based on 
any lower principle. For the church to acquiesce in the 
exemption from the Christian law of love of any sphere of 
life in which Christians take an active part and to admit 
the validity of any such excuse, for instance, as hard eco¬ 
nomic or political necessity, would be to avow itself lacking 
in the one thing needful for discipleship. The duty of 
Christians is to strive to permeate society with Christian 
principles and so, God helping them, to make the kingdoms 
of this world the kingdom of God’s Son. The tragic failure 
of Christendom has been that there has been so little at¬ 
tempt to apply really Christian principles to the common 
life on a large scale. As Chesterton says, “ Christianity has 
not been tried and found wanting; it has been found diffi- 


The Oxford Conference 


192 

cult and not tried.” The progress which has occurred has 
been due to a growing insight into the applicability of the 
exhortation, “ Bear ye one another’s burdens,” to sphere 
after sphere of the common life. If, however, Christians 
cannot persuade society to adopt the Christian way, they 
will withdraw and live it out together. This is not neces¬ 
sarily to disclaim responsibility for the corporate life, since 
the truest public service may be rendered by the noncon¬ 
formist. 

But a section of Christians still larger numerically has 
always taken the opposite view. Of this second view there 
are two main forms. According to the first there is avail¬ 
able a moral standard for the common life which is not the 
full commandment of the Christian gospel but has some 
relation to it and should very gradually approximate more 
nearly to it. This has been most fully worked out in the 
conception of “ natural law ” embodied in the Catholic 
tradition. Here is found a normative ideal for the common 
life, derived originally not from the Bible but from an 
analysis of secular institutions and standards combined with 
philosophic reflection. This gives at once a justification 
for existing conventions and codes, and a standard for their 
improvement. It is an ideal, but not a utopian ideal. It is 
a possible common basis for Christian and non-Christian; 
it embodies the virtues of justice and temperance but not 
of faith, hope and charity. Something similar is found in 
the conception of the “ moral law ” current in Anglo-Saxon 
countries. This was, in fact, derived largely from the Deca¬ 
logue, but it was regarded as having validity independent 
of its theological origin, and so, in the eyes of all right- 
thinking persons, as having a claim to govern both private 
and public life. For Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr 3 the concep- 

3 Cf. his paper in the forthcoming volume, The Christian Faith and the 
Common Life . 


Additional Report — Church and Community 193 

tion of “ justice ” plays a somewhat similar part. To be 
willing to give other men their due and to be content with 
one’s own due falls far short of Christian agape. But a 
world in which this principle was generally practiced would 
be a far better world than the present. 

The second form of this view is based on a more radical 
pessimism. Here, too, the standards which govern the 
Christian in his intimate personal life are not regarded as 
applicable in the wider sphere of the common life, but for 
that there is no generally applicable moral standard. The 
whole complex of sentiment and implicit moral judgment 
and custom which actually governs the life of the com¬ 
munity is to be regarded as part of the framework in which 
our lives are set by the ordinance of God. In their existing 
form these are far from “ Christian,” being largely the re¬ 
sult of sin. Nevertheless, they serve by God’s mercy to 
protect the human race, not indeed from sin itself, but from 
the ruin which is the natural result of sin; and they thus 
keep open the possibility of salvation though they cannot 
minister directly to it. They are dikes which keep out the 
flood, and the danger of chaos is so great that any order is 
better than none. Accordingly, ideals, as such, are un¬ 
trustworthy. Human corruption infects so deeply all our 
efforts at betterment that we cannot take even gross evils as 
a sign that the social system of which they are an integral 
part must be mended or ended. The authority of the 
actual moral order in any community does not depend for 
Christians on its approximation to “ natural law ” or to 
any other moral standard — still less to the ideals of a ser¬ 
mon on the mount. The proper question is not, Does it 
approximate to the Christian law of love? (that is not to 
be expected anyhow; and the suggestion is only conceivable 
on the basis of a sentimental watering down of such sacri¬ 
ficial love into a mere general amiability), but, Does it 


The Oxford Conference 


194 

help to avert the collapse of civilization? If so, its main¬ 
tenance must be deemed to be in accordance with the sov¬ 
ereign will of God. Hence a modification of the existing 
order will be justified only if it springs out of the needs of 
the actual situation, and not on any general principle how¬ 
ever “ Christian.” 

Here is a radical division of principle between sincere 
Christians. It underlies and goes far to explain the notori¬ 
ous confusion and disunion concerning practical issues 
which give scandal to friends and enemies alike. It is in¬ 
evitable that Christians should differ fundamentally as to 
what should be the church’s attitude today toward war or 
the capitalist system or current penal law and practice or 
current sex morality, when there is no agreement between 
them about the standards by which they are to judge. Some 
differences of application there will always be, but differ¬ 
ences of principle of such magnitude are stultifying. 

There is urgent need that these differences be further 
explored and that Christians make an earnest and sustained 
effort to reach a more common mind. 

(2) The Duty of Christian Individuals and Groups within 

the Common Life. The Problem of Personal Compro¬ 
mise 

Over against the world at large the Christian is bound to 
a distinctive way of life. He is to love God with all his 
heart and soul and, therefore, to love his neighbor as him¬ 
self. He is to give his brethren not merely their due but 
an unconditional love and service; and this Christian agape 
is qualitatively different from any natural affection or any 
rational benevolence which implies reciprocity. He at¬ 
taches an absolute value to his neighbor, not as being such 
and such, more or less likable or more or less virtuous, but 
simply as a fellow man and therefore a child of God, and 


Additional Report — Church and Community 195 

there, like himself, one of those for whom Christ died. 
This attitude can only be justified on the basis of faith and 
not of any empirical evidence. It is based on the redemp¬ 
tive love of God for men revealed in the life and death of 
Jesus Christ. The gospel has set forth the family as the 
regulative standard of human relationships — but the fam¬ 
ily as it is not in quiet times but when it has survived tri¬ 
umphantly the highest imaginable tension, when its mem¬ 
bers are awake with a quivering sensitiveness to all that it 
means. To exemplify this spirit to the best of its ability is 
incumbent on a sincerely Christian community — for ex¬ 
ample, a Christian household — and through the grace of 
God it has been exemplified in some degree, if only fitfully, 
in saintly lives in every generation. 

In the past, Christians in general have in effect estab¬ 
lished a working compromise with the moral standards of 
the surrounding society. Through the influence of the 
Christian conscience some flagrant wrongs have disappeared 
from the world or have been greatly reduced. There is, for 
instance, more consideration for women and children, for 
the aged and sick, and for the poor and needy. The general 
conscience of civilized society has been roused to some genu¬ 
ine understanding that men are their brothers’ keepers. 
But to a larger extent Christian people, in their ordinary 
weekday life in the world, have adopted the current stand¬ 
ards of contemporary respectable society rather than made 
an independent Christian contribution to them. The 
Christian layman in a “ Christian ” country mixing with 
others in his home, in the workshop or the office, in the 
public house or on the golf links, has recourse to the gener¬ 
ally accepted standards which he himself commonly shares. 
Some of these are general, such as the ideals of the “ gentle¬ 
man,” the “ sportsman,” the “ good pal,” the “ man of 
honor ”; others are professional and specialized, such as the 


The Oxford Conference 


196 

“ good workman,” the “ upright businessman,” the “ just 
judge,” the “ chivalrous warrior.” The distinctive, de¬ 
voted, unworldly aspect of the Christian life has fallen into 
the background here, even with those to whom it is a reality 
in their more intimate and personal relations. When in 
Rome they not only do as Rome does, but they do it for 
much the same reasons as others. They strive to make a 
living at the expense of their competitors, they go to the law 
courts to defend their rights and they provide for a rainy 
day rather than give all their goods to the poor. The only 
exceptions are specialists, like monks and nuns, or minori¬ 
ties of peculiar people, like the “ sects.” 

Is all such compromise an unworthy backsliding, a sign 
of unfaithfulness and disloyalty for which penitence is due? 
If so, the practice of Christianity on a large scale has never 
yet been attempted, and that may be the chief cause of the 
present plight both of the world and of the church. Or is 
it a genuine obedience to the spirit rather than to the letter 
and a sign of a sane realism as opposed to a sentimental 
utopianism? 

On this issue sincere Christians today are deeply divided, 
and while that division lasts there can be little unity on 
practical policies. To obtain further light and — D. V. — 
more of a common mind upon it is of the most urgent im¬ 
portance for the whole church. For the world as a whole 
today, and even in “ Christian ” countries, the church has 
little vital impact on the common life as a whole. This is 
largely due to a pervading sense of unreality which affects 
both the reaction of the world to the church and the mind 
of the church itself. When the church adapts itself to cur¬ 
rent standards the world feels that — consciously or uncon¬ 
sciously — Christians are hypocrites; they do not really 
believe what they preach, for they don’t attempt to prac¬ 
tice it. On the other hand, with the more uncompromising 


Additional Report — Church and Community 197 

Christians the world feels that these are brave words but 
quite unrealistic, and that their utterers belong to that type 
of idealist in whom the wish to believe is paramount, who 
will not face realities and who is forever deceiving himself 
with beautiful dreams. And in both cases the Christians in 
their hearts feel something of this themselves, and their 
spiritual power and effectiveness are fatally weakened by 
unconfessed and only half-conscious misgivings. Before 
all things it is necessary that the Christian message for the 
common life regain “ the bracing sense of effective reality.” 

On the one view conscious compromise is inconsistent 
with any sincerity of discipleship. Christ’s commandment 
is, “ Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” 
Nothing less than absolute purity, absolute honesty, abso¬ 
lute agape in all circumstances is to be the Christian’s aim. 
The Christian knows in advance that, being faulty and 
erring, he will not achieve it; but to aim at less is to betray 
his Master. Moreover, it is faithless to speak and act as if 
his possibilities were limited by his own strength: if his 
surrender is wholehearted he has the grace of God on which 
to rely. To prudential arguments about consequences he is 
deaf; consequences are not his responsibility; they are not 
in his hands but in the hands of God. Also, he will be on 
his guard against the immense temptation to self-deception. 
In nothing is the corruption of human nature more mani¬ 
fest than in the plausible sophistries by which we seek to 
persuade ourselves that the line of least resistance can be 
justified on the highest moral grounds. To such arguments 
the Christian reply is simple — “ Get thee behind me, 
Satan.” 

On the other view there are various limitations which 
make impossible any direct application of the principle of 
redemptive love as revealed in Jesus Christ to the whole 
field of the common life. First, human individuals or 


198 The Oxford Conference 

groups are finite, and therefore can dispose of only a limited 
amount of time and attention and active sympathy. In 
Christ the love that beareth all things, believeth all things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things, was extended to all 
mankind. With men it is possible at best toward a very 
few. Not only through moral defect, but in the nature of 
the case, it cannot be the guiding principle of our action 
toward the majority of those with whom we have dealings. 
Second, if there is to be common action between any large 
number of persons, that implies a formula of some sort. 
But any formula or program or “ rule of life ” for a group 
must fall below the level of the spontaneous action of its 
best members; for such action — action for example in the 
spirit of I Corinthians 13 — arises not in obedience to any 
rule but as the irresistible welling up of spontaneous feel¬ 
ing. It is no more explicable by a rule than the highest 
achievements of artistic genius are explicable by any con¬ 
ceivable esthetic formula. Third, for joint action between 
Christian and non-Christian there is a further limitation. 
(It is hardly possible to avoid such joint action altogether; 
and any avoidance which is less than total is more effective 
for quieting uneasy Christian consciences than for afford¬ 
ing real relief from responsibility for the common life.) 
Social rules which are to bind non-Christians and semi- 
Christians as well as the converted, and which require their 
concurrence if they are to be effective, can only prescribe 
the highest standard for which the communal mind is yet 
ripe; for it is necessary to reckon not only with opinions 
which can be changed fairly quickly, but with ingrained 
assumptions and sentiments which control the routine of 
life and are only very gradually alterable. The justifica¬ 
tion for such participation is that “ half a loaf is better than 
no bread.” It is certainly the Christian’s duty in every 


Additional Report — Church and Community 199 

situation to do what is God’s will for him in that situation; 
there can be no compromise there. But it may be God’s 
will for him to do in that situation what regarded in the 
abstract would be sub-Christian. 

To the problem of compromise, which has perplexed and 
harassed the soul of every sincere Christian since Christ’s 
day, there is no clear and simple solution. Quite possibly 
God’s will in this matter varies for each person; it is known 
only to God, and it is revealed only to the individual as he 
seeks penitently and earnestly to open his mind to the 
guidance of the Spirit. Nevertheless one or two general 
statements can be made. 

Through all the Christian centuries there have been 
within the life and leadership of the church representatives 
of each of the two main alternative positions, whom their 
fellows and the judgment of subsequent generations have 
recognized as true and devoted followers of Christ. The 
distinction between the “ sect ” and the “ church ” types of 
practical Christianity appears clearly in the earliest records 
of the primitive church itself, and it corresponds in some 
measure with the distinction of prophet and priest in the 
ministry of the church. The stubborn persistence and con¬ 
stant recurrence of these two views of the Christian life and 
types of Christian fellowship and worship suggests that 
both have their necessary place within the wider reality of 
Christ’s church. The exclusive predominance of the one 
would produce an irresponsible individualism and would 
destroy continuity; the exclusive predominance of the other 
would produce a stagnant conformity and would prevent 
advance. 

Again, men’s natural attraction is to conformity; there is 
an inherent lag and drag in human nature which is part of 
man’s sinfulness. Therefore every man must be warned 


200 


The Oxford Conference 


unremittingly of this incurable tendency and be put on his 
guard against it. Further, it is the prophets who pioneer 
mankind’s advance — almost always at the price of misun¬ 
derstanding and abuse, often at the cost of persecution and 
martyrdom. The blood of the martyrs is the life of the 
church. Therefore the church and every Christian owe a 
special duty of sympathy and support to fearless and de¬ 
voted pioneers. 

But “ compromise ” is an ambiguous term. If Christians 
would think clearly about their own lives or fairly about 
their fellows, they must recognize the clear distinction be¬ 
tween conduct due to the limitations which are implicit in 
human finiteness and in the given conditions of social life 
(which is often misleadingly called “ compromise ”), and 
true and blameworthy compromise which implies a failure 
to fulfill genuine possibilities of faithful discipleship. To 
recognize this distinction is not to relax the moral tension 
by justifying sin. There is enough undeniable sinful com¬ 
promise in every man’s life to bring the honest spirit to 
despair. But to call that sin which is really part of God’s 
structure for life is to falsify truth. Like every other form 
of exaggerated self-mortification it leads either to unhealthy 
morbidity or inverted self-righteousness through unnatural 
self-concern. 

Yet here too the temptation to self-deception is great. 
There is no such thing as a life without compromise, not 
only in the legitimate sense of adaptation to given condi¬ 
tions but also in the deeper and sinful sense of avoidable 
failure in faithful discipleship. There is in all our acts 
some wrongful shortcoming which only a pharisaic legalism 
can ignore. Every sensitive Christian knows well enough 
that he is so failing at every moment; he is always a sinner. 
At all times we must confess, “We are unprofitable serv¬ 
ants.’’ 


Additional Report — Church and Community 201 

(3) The Church and Community 

(a) Community and “ the Orders” The church dis¬ 
covers each person, never as an isolated individual, but al¬ 
ways enmeshed in a web of organic corporate relationships 
which surround his life in concentric circles of ever widen¬ 
ing radius — his family, his neighborhood, his race, his peo¬ 
ple, his nation, all humanity. To these powerful organic 
structures or relationships which are continuing features 
of human life in every age and among all peoples the Ger¬ 
mans give the name die Ordnungen, “ the orders their 
nature and their true significance in the Christian under¬ 
standing of life is one of the most disputed issues in contem¬ 
porary Christian thought. 

Each relationship conditions and molds both the life and 
the thought of every person in greater or less measure, usu¬ 
ally in more subtle and pervasive ways than he realizes. 
Each makes invaluable contributions to his existence, and 
in return lays upon him obligations to loyalty and service. 
For Christian faith, each in its true expression is, in some 
sense, a part of the divine order, part of God’s gracious pro¬ 
vision for the enrichment of man’s life. But there is con¬ 
flict between their respective claims. Much more impor¬ 
tant for Christian faith, each is forever tending to make 
demands upon the Christian in conflict with his duty to 
God. Like every individual, each of the great corporate 
societies or “ orders ” of human life is always infected with 
the sins of pride, fear, idolatry, greed and insularity. They 
are always partly God-inspired, partly sin-infected and 
therefore “ demonic ” in their claims. In consequence, the 
life of each Christian is always in tension between the ille¬ 
gitimate demands (usually exaggerations or perversions of 
legitimate demands) of the various “ orders ” upon him 
and the demand which alone rightly claims his unqualified 
devotion — that of the will of God. Hence spring many of 


202 


The Oxford Conference 


the most perplexing problems of the Christian’s life in the 
world. 

The most intimate and meaningful of these societies or 
“ orders,” and much the most rightful in its demands, 
is that of family, for to it each person owes not only his 
very existence but all the gifts of early nurture and protec¬ 
tion. Its ties are biological, not merely cultural or histori¬ 
cal or accidental or sentimental. Indeed so universal is the 
recognition of the profound claims of family that each of 
the wider societies or “ orders ” seeks to appropriate for its 
own claims the same advantage by presenting itself to men 
as the “ larger family.” Thus members of lodges, fraterni¬ 
ties, clans and nations, as well as churches, call each other 
“ brother ” and “ sister ” in their efforts to lay upon the 
individual the obligations of family loyalty. Yet the de¬ 
mands of the family itself may be, and often are, in unresolv- 
able conflict with duty to God and therefore “ demonic.” 
Hence Jesus’ stringent injunction, “ Unless ye hate father 
and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, 
ye cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:26) 

The relationship or “ order ” next after family in the 
enrichment of the individual and his consequent loyalty to 
it may be the neighborhood in which he dwells, or a par¬ 
ticular society or organization or communion of which he is 
a member. (For, as a human institution, the church is one 
society or “ order ” among others, making its contribution 
and claiming its loyalty as they do, and like them forever 
in danger of infection by sin, thus becoming “ demonic.”) 
Or, the society or “ order ” of next strongest claim may be 
the individual’s people or nation, or even humanity. In 
any event, these latter and wider corporate realities each 
make their contribution to him and lay their claim upon 
him — the people or folk to whom his life is bound by pro¬ 
found ties of common heritage, custom, experience and, it 


Additional Report — Church and Community 203 

may be, blood; the nation-state of his residence; the race of 
his birth; and the great body of mankind which the Chris¬ 
tian by faith recognizes as the company of the sons and 
daughters of God — his Father’s family upon earth. 

It is in the relative importance of these societies or “ or¬ 
ders,” in the legitimate or “ demonic ” character of their 
respective claims, and especially in the true relation be¬ 
tween his duty to them and his sovereign duty to God that 
many of the Christian’s most poignant perplexities lie. It 
is here that some of the most serious misunderstandings 
among Christians today arise. 

The difficulty is intensified because there is no single set 
of terms by which the different relationships or “ orders ” 
are uniformly understood in different parts of the world. 
But that is not merely a defect of language. The difficulty 
in language is a revelation of the problem, not its cause. 
It is due to the deeper fact that the relationship which each 
of these terms designates and which is set forth in its dic¬ 
tionary definition has markedly different meanings and as¬ 
sociations in different parts of the world. And, since the 
practical reality is not the abstract relationship, but the 
meaning of the relationship — the actual grip which it has 
upon whole peoples — we have to do not merely with con¬ 
fusion of terms but with different realities. Therefore it 
must be recognized first that none of the most familiar 
terms — community, nation, people, Volk, race —, various 
forms of which are frequently employed interchangeably, 
are precise equivalents. Second and more important, it 
must be recognized that each of these terms is differently 
understood by different sets of people and means different 
things to them. It is these various meanings which must be 
understood if discussion is to be fruitful. 

For example, each of these wider corporate realities — 
neighborhood, organization, church, people, nation, race. 


The Oxford Conference 


204 

humanity — may be designated as a community. But con¬ 
cerning their relative significance as communities there is 
wide difference of view. Thus a European writer defines 
a community by contrast with an association. An associa¬ 
tion may be defined by the purpose for which it is consti¬ 
tuted. It is formed for particular ends such as trade, recrea¬ 
tion, study, mutual security. As a rule its membership is 
voluntary; an individual may disassociate himself from one 
association and join himself to another. But a community 
is a corporate reality of a very different kind. It is the whole 
of a people living continuously together in one area when, 
as such, they share a common social life and form. It is 
something to which one is bora, not something which one 
chooses to join. Its ties are those of historic origin, not 
those of pragmatic usefulness. It is a natural growth rather 
than an artificial creation. Its purposes are too many and 
too indefinite to be enumerated and all of them together 
do not fully explain its existence or its character. Its co¬ 
hesion is largely subconscious and semi-instinctive and it is 
more lasting than that of an association. Its fellow feeling 
and the purposes it subserves are not the cause of its mem¬ 
bers’ living together but rather flow out of that. 

Yet there is not a single element in that definition of 
“ community ” which is not refuted by corporate realities 
in various parts of the world which are undoubtedly com¬ 
munities. In the United States, the most frequent meaning 
of “ community ” is not “ the whole of a people,” but “ a 
segment of the people living in geographical proximity,” a 
neighborhood. The Jewish people do not “live continu¬ 
ously together in one area ” but are scattered over the face 
of the earth, yet feel themselves one community; and the 
same might be said of the British empire. The Swiss na¬ 
tional community shares several languages and cultures. 
The American people is a community into which many of 


Additional Report — Church and Community 205 

its members were not born but which they chose to join; 
its ties are less those of historic origin than of pragmatic 
usefulness. Many modern nations with a deep sense of 
community are less “ natural growths ” than “ artificial 
creations.” Of some of them it must be said that “ its fel¬ 
low feeling and the purposes it subserves are the cause of 
its members’ living together,” and not the reverse. For in¬ 
creasing numbers of Christians, the Christian world com¬ 
munity which possesses no geographical locus, no tangible 
structure, no unity of language or uniformity of custom, is 
a reality of far greater meaning and authority than the in¬ 
numerable local, racial and national communities which 
have traditionally claimed human devotion. 

In brief, the one essential condition of a community is 
that its members should feel themselves to be a social whole, 
that is, that they should feel themselves to be a community. 
For community, the reality is constituted by profound 
awareness of common interest or affection or loyalty or as¬ 
piration and not by factors of racial kinship, historic asso¬ 
ciation, geographical propinquity or shared experience. 
The latter may be precedent; they may be derivative; they 
may be nonexistent. 

Much the same thing may be said of the inner realities 
which bind a people together into a nation and which 
quicken the consciousness of obligation and debtorship. 
In the United States, where unity proceeds from no identity 
of race or blood, no long historic continuity of life and 
custom, no great body of common folkways, but from a com¬ 
mon ideal rather than a common history, it is the nation¬ 
state to which loyalty adheres. In central and eastern Eu¬ 
ropean countries, in recent years especially, there has been 
a mighty resurgence of loyalty to Volk (a term for which 
there is no precise English equivalent, the closest parallel 
being perhaps “ people ”), loyalty to the corporate reality 


206 


The Oxford Conference 


to which one belongs by deep historic association and racial 
kinship, by which the heritage of the past is continued and 
the common life sustained, and which, it is maintained, is 
the “ order ” established by God next in importance to 
family for the nurture and discipline of man. In Great 
Britain loyalty is given to “ king and country ” — a reality 
intermediate between the American nation-state and the 
continental Volk. And there are other variations among 
other peoples. Here, likewise, a nation is a nation because 
its members feel themselves to be so and, consciously or 
implicitly, are resolved to remain so. 

Again, with regard to the hold which national ties take 
upon the loyalties of members, there is the widest diversity. 
At one end of the scale are peoples in whom the rebirth of 
the sense of nationality has lately come as a profound and 
shattering vital experience to which all else must be related, 
like a volcanic eruption in whose glow the whole landscape 
is lit up. At the other is the people of the United States, 
which is and feels itself a nation but has no single common 
blood, language or culture and for which a common soil is 
only a recent acquisition. Again, for a Frenchman himself, 
and for understanding him, it is obviously far more impor¬ 
tant that he is a Frenchman than that he is a Gascon or a Eu¬ 
ropean. With a Briton, it is less obvious whether it is more 
significant and matters more that he is British or that he is 
Scottish, Welsh or English. With a French Canadian it is 
far from clear whether he is primarily French, Canadian, 
British or American; and with a recent immigrant from 
Europe to the United States, whether it is his old or his new 
nation to which he most belongs. 

(b) The Church and National Community (Volk ). 
The problem of community is given a special setting and 
urgency at the present time by the crucially central place 
which the reality of Volk has come to have in the thinking 


Additional Report — Church and Community 207 

of many peoples, especially the German-speaking peoples 
of the continent of Europe. It must be clearly grasped that 
the word Volk is, strictly speaking, quite untranslatable into 
English just because it designates both a sentiment and a 
body of convictions to which there is no exact or even ap¬ 
proximate parallel elsewhere. (The Japanese philosophy 
and practice of emperor worship reveals analogies to po¬ 
litical nationalism but not to the sentiment of Volk. The. 
British sentiment toward the crown has points of kinship 
but is supported by no such mythical and metaphysical 
structure.) As Professor Ernest Barker writes: 

Our word “ community ” is a multicolored word. It has 
many areas of operation. The German word Volk is a unitary 
word. There is one Volk, though it may have two different 
manifestations according as we are thinking of the Volk al¬ 
ready included in the boundaries of the German state or of the 
broader Volk which transcends those boundaries. . . . None 
of us can use the word “ community ” with the simple intensity 
with which the German uses the word Volk. When we think 
of the realities of church and community, we are thus thinking 
of something different from the relation of Kirche and Volk. 

Because of its great importance for Europeans today, 
Christians everywhere should make special efforts to come 
into an understanding of the inner meaning of Volk. It is 
thus described by a competent authority: 

Volk is not an institution, but a living personal community 
of a superindividual kind. The elements by which it is con¬ 
stituted, viz. identity of blood, occupancy of the same territory, 
possession of the same language, customs, history and culture, 
etc., are of different strength at different times. Volk is best 
understood on the analogy of the family. It stands for common 
descent in the spiritual and physical sense of the word. It has 
to be distinguished from society, class, mass, nation and state. 
It is not a sum of individuals, or a collective compound, but as 
it were a living being of community life. Nation means Volk 
or the population viewed in its political aspect. Fascism takes 


208 


The Oxford Conference 


the concept of Volk under its political aspect. The German 
conceives the state as the instrument to form and keep the peo¬ 
ple a continuing and growing force. Volk is an organic thing; 
state an organization. 

Although this recrudescence of passionate loyalty to Volk 
seems to many people today a new and strange phenome¬ 
non, it has its roots deep in history, indeed in Christian his¬ 
tory. It has been a central issue in the relations of church 
and community for fifteen centuries. It first presented 
itself as a problem for Christian thought and life when mis¬ 
sionaries carried Christianity to the barbarian tribes of 
northern Europe in the fifth and following centuries. 
Though, through Judaism, Christianity itself had tribal and 
national affiliations, it had grown up under the Roman Em¬ 
pire and had shaped itself in a world imbued with imperial 
culture and presuppositions. But the empire was breaking 
up, and the barbarians already had their own tribal reli¬ 
gions, linked with all phases of the common life of the tribe. 
To a large extent the missionaries adapted themselves to 
this pattern and Christianity was domesticated to tribal and 
national loyalties. Since that day the life of the church has 
reflected the tension in Europe between imperial and na¬ 
tional ideals, between the relatively rational, civilized and 
sophisticated ideals of homo sapiens and the more primi¬ 
tive, intimate unreflective group loyalties of the natural 
man. The Reformation marked the triumph of national¬ 
ism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, under the influence 
of rationalism and humanitarianism in the secular world 
and of the missionary movement and the ideal of the world¬ 
wide community of Christians in religion, the intense and 
exclusive ties of national loyalty were somewhat relaxed in 
favor of universalism in both politics and religion. Today 
they are again clamant. 


Additional Report — Church and Community 209 

Thus the true place of national or community or Volk 
loyalty in the life of the Christian, and the true relation of 
the Christian church to these natural and powerful soci¬ 
eties, has been a mooted but unsettled issue throughout the 
greater part of Christian history. We here confront not 
merely the personal problem of conflict between claims of 
community and duty to God. There is the far deeper issue 
of the place which these “ orders ” or societies are believed 
to hold in God’s wider purpose for all mankind. In this 
matter Christians are not fully agreed. But there is una¬ 
nimity as to the following basic principles. 

The Christian attitude toward national community or 
Volk must depend in the first instance on the place Chris¬ 
tians assign to it in the divine economy. The starting point 
is the double recognition already noted — nation or Volk 
is always at once both God-given and sin-infected. The 
Christian is called upon to accept and rejoice in the fact that 
God has chosen to set men in various races, peoples and na¬ 
tions, with different manners and styles of life. That each 
nation seems to have its distinctive contribution and mis¬ 
sion to the world is to be ascribed to God’s purpose. The 
ties of common blood, soil, tradition, culture and purpose 
which constitute the national community are by nature 
enormously strong. They are given of God who creates the 
individual life in and through the life of a specific com¬ 
munity. 

On the other hand, it must be said with the greatest em¬ 
phasis that, as with every divine gift, the gift of nation has 
been and is being abused by men and made to serve sin. 
Any form of national egotism whereby the love of one’s 
own people leads to the suppression of other nationalities 
or minorities, or to failure to respect and appreciate the 
gifts of other people, is sin and rebellion against God who 
is the Creator and Lord of all peoples. The history of every 


210 


The Oxford Conference 


nation is defaced by national crimes; every nation has its 
distinctive national defects as well as its distinctive excel¬ 
lences. More fundamental still, even the best things in 
national life have in them an element of sinful self-assertion 
and self-glorification, of indifference and contempt for “ the 
lesser breeds without the law ” and of the will to lord it over 
them. Everywhere in the life of nations and peoples these 
two elements have been and are at work; it is not possible to 
disentangle them and to say with confidence, “ This is the 
work of God ” and, “ This is the work of the devil.” But 
to see in one’s own nation the source and standard of revela¬ 
tion, or in any other way to give the nation divine status, is 
utterly sinful. 

Thus the Christian attitude toward nation or Volk will 
be twofold. The primary call on the loyalty and service of 
both the church and the individual believer is as a rule to 
the community in which God has set them. The love of the 
Christian for his people should be part of his gratitude to 
God for the riches which are his through the community 
into which he has been born. Each generation has in¬ 
herited from the past a distinctive ethos and culture by 
which its own mind and character have been shaped. Of 
this it is a trustee rather than an owner. It is its duty to 
preserve that inheritance and to transmit it unimpaired 
and if possible enhanced to posterity. Every church should 
regard itself as a church for the whole people, not in the 
sense that it would subordinate itself to the national life 
but in the sense that it accepts its place in the community 
and acknowledges its responsibility, along with all other 
Christian bodies, to reach all members of the community 
with the Christian message. 

But the obligation both of Christian and church is rather 
to loyalty than to obedience or conformity — and loyalty 
itself sometimes requires vigorous opposition to the gen- 


Additional Report — Church and Community 211 

eral will. The prophets of Israel constantly withstood, re¬ 
buked and prophesied against their own people and their 
constituted authorities; that is why they were stoned. In 
doing so they transgressed no patriotic duty. Rather, they 
themselves were the true patriots because they spoke and 
acted not in “ abject submission ” to the “ occasional will ” 
of their nation but out of a deep and true insight into the 
things that belonged to its peace. So, likewise, Jesus spoke 
out against the evils in national and Volk life in sharp and 
unsparing denunciation. While the Christian church in 
any country consists predominantly of the members of the 
people of that country, it has a unique character in that it 
is based on conscious allegiance to God in Christ and its 
center is beyond this world. It has its own distinctive task 
of witness and worship which for its members constitutes an 
imperative transcending all others. To submit to interfer¬ 
ence in its performance would be apostasy; it would be to 
obey man rather than God. In addition, it can view folk¬ 
ways and national claims from a perspective unavailable to 
others, in the light of the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, 
and it must maintain thereby a prophetic and critical out¬ 
look upon the national life as a whole. More particularly, 
where nation or Volk is deified or made supreme over all 
other peoples and all other claims this pretension must be 
utterly repudiated and irreconcilably opposed both by the 
individual Christian conscience and by the Christian 
church in the name of God. Further, the church is called 
to be watchful that such sinful pretensions, or the world 
views by which they are supported, do not enter within its 
own life, destroying its supernational fellowship and cor¬ 
rupting the pure word of the gospel which it is called upon 
to preach. 

Thus far all Christians may agree. To this extent they 
may, and should, present a united and powerful witness 


212 


The Oxford Conference 


concerning both the positive validity and the “ demonic ” 
pretensions of the claims of nation or Volk. But beyond 
this large and important area of agreement there are serious 
differences of conviction. As we have noted, they have 
their roots far back in history. And they cannot be said 
to arise wholly from theological divergences as to the place 
of nation or Volk in the divine economy. It is only too ap¬ 
parent that, through the whole of Christian history and not 
least today, they have been strongly colored by political 
exigencies and loyalties; Christians have tended to favor 
that view of the divine significance of nation and Volk 
which most readily supported the political interests of 
their own people. 

To some, it appears that national community or Volk, 
like the family to which it is akin and to which it stands 
next in the divine economy, is an order especially created 
by God for the preservation of the heritage of the past, the 
nurture and training of the successive generations and the 
maintenance and improvement of the common life of men. 
Any weakening of its demands upon individual loyalty and 
obedience is a blow not only to social stability but to the 
very structure of morality and religion. Duty to Volk is 
in the last analysis duty to God; its claim upon persons 
is well-nigh absolute. To others, it seems that the semi- 
instinctive and subrational emotions of Volk loyalty come 
down from primitive and precivilized levels; they appeal to 
all that is parochial, bigoted and fearful in man and their 
continuance is a device of conservative forces to preserve 
the status quo and block progress. A radical emancipation 
from their hold upon individual sentiment and obedience 
is essential for growth into the wider and more inclusive 
loyalty to the body of humanity. Excessive deference to 
Volk is in the last analysis apostasy to God who, as Father 
of all mankind, intends every person to come into the re- 


Additional Report — Church and Community 213 

ality of the universal brotherhood of his children. The 
central issue is thus clear. It is the relation in the divine 
plan of loyalty to the narrower but more intimate and in¬ 
tense bonds of community or Volk, to the wider but more 
general loyalty to the whole family of God’s children. Is 
that more limited loyalty God’s special provision for hu¬ 
man nurture and discipline — next to the family in legiti¬ 
mate obligation — or is it a persistence of tribal feeling 
from which men should be freed in order to realize the di¬ 
vine commonwealth? Is that wider loyalty merely an ab¬ 
stract humanitarianism masquerading under Christian 
aegis, or is it the ultimate fellowship toward which God 
ever seeks to lead his unwilling children? This is an issue 
urgently requiring concerted Christian study. 

(c) The Church and Race. A special problem of critical 
urgency today is that of the relations between peoples of 
different races. Here all of the deep human loyalties and 
prejudices which are present in both lofty and demonic 
form in.all phases of the common life — pride in ancestry 
and heritage, dislike of alien peoples and unfamiliar ways, 
tension between more advanced and less advanced cul¬ 
tures, fear of contamination and desire for opportunity, eco¬ 
nomic greed and economic need—come to most extreme 
and dangerous expression. And there are in addition 
deep-seated antipathies and apprehensions peculiar to race 
relationships. The roots of the problem are deep and dif¬ 
ficult of treatment. No simple or easy solution is possible. 
It is all the more imperative that Christians have a clear and 
firm grasp of the Christian truth concerning race, the na¬ 
ture of the present situation and the Christian’s responsi¬ 
bility for action. 

For Christians, the starting point in this as in every prob¬ 
lem of the relations of men is the affirmation that all men 
are by birthright children of God created in his image, and 


The Oxford Conference 


214 

therefore brothers and sisters to one another. They are, 
moreover, “ brothers for whom Christ died,” and are in¬ 
tended by God to be brought within the fellowship of his 
one true church. 

Each of the races of mankind has been blessed by God 
with distinctive and unique gifts. Each has made, and 
seems destined to continue to make, distinctive and unique 
contributions to the enrichment of mankind. All share 
alike in the love, the concern and the compassion of God. 
Therefore, for a Christian there can be no such thing as 
despising another race or a member of another race. More¬ 
over, when God chose to reveal himself in human form, the 
Word became flesh in One of a race then as now widely de¬ 
spised. Christ himself selected as the supreme illustration 
of the charity he enjoined upon his followers a member of 
a hated and outcast people — outcast because they were of 
mixed blood (the good Samaritan). For Christians, alien 
or outcast peoples claim special regard. 

Each race is rightly grateful for its own heritage and 
possibilities. Apparently, each desires to preserve its own 
identity. What it chiefly desires of other races is not op¬ 
portunity for intermarriage, but recognition of its dignity 
within the family of mankind and opportunities for educa¬ 
tion, for significant vocation and for social intercourse 
within the common life. As to the desirability or unde¬ 
sirability of widespread admixture of races, the authorities 
are sharply divided. This is a matter to which Christians 
and scientists should give determined study. It must be 
noted, however, that such mixture of less advanced and 
more advanced peoples as has occurred has been mainly due 
to the initiative and often to the violence or fraud of the 
latter. Further, there is today, apart from certain primi¬ 
tive peoples, no such thing as a “ pure race.” The assump¬ 
tion by any race or nation of supreme blood or destiny must 


Additional Report — Church and Community 215 

be emphatically denied by Christians as without foundation 
in fact and wholly alien to the heart of the gospel. 

The problem of the relations of the races is found today 
chiefly in two situations: within a nation where large num¬ 
bers of two or more races dwell together and between na¬ 
tions of different races. In either situation, the problem 
may arise between races of relatively equal culture or be¬ 
tween markedly more and less advanced peoples. It is to 
be noted that the problem within nations is most acute 
where, as in North America, the minority were first intro¬ 
duced into a country by violence and at the instance and 
solely for the benefit of the people which now denies them 
social equality; or, as in many parts of Africa, Asia and 
Australasia, where the dominant people themselves are an 
alien minority in a land originally belonging to those whom 
they now dominate; or, as in the case of the Jewish nation, 
of a people forcibly exiled from their homeland who were 
originally often welcomed for what they could contribute 
to the dominant nation’s welfare. In the first two instances 
especially the predominant motive was economic exploita¬ 
tion and aggrandizement. In brief, the most acute situa¬ 
tions today are largely due to movements of population 
initiated by white and so-called “ Christian ” nations for 
their own advantage. Individual Christians and their 
churches bear a heavy guilt. 

The gravity of the problem cannot be exaggerated. Both 
within certain nations and on the wider scale of the world¬ 
wide relations of the races, catastrophe is hardly to be 
avoided without clear-sighted and courageous action. It 
seems doubtful if it can be avoided in any event except 
through the wisdom and power of religion. In this task, the 
Christian church is called to play a major, it may be a de¬ 
cisive, part; and every Christian has a twofold responsibility 
— as a citizen and as a member of the church of Christ. 


2 l6 


The Oxford Conference 


The concrete forms of the problem vary widely in differ¬ 
ent communities and lands. There is no single or simple 
solution. But there are certain principles which Christians 
everywhere should seek to have incorporated in the senti¬ 
ments and public policies of their nations and communi¬ 
ties. Among these are: 

(1) The recognition of the value of every human being 
as a person. 

(2) The right of every person, whatever his race, color 
or present status, to the conditions essential for life as a 
person; to education; to opportunity in his vocation, recrea¬ 
tion and social intercourse. 

(3) Full participation in fellowship and leadership for 
members of a less advanced people as they prove their 
ability. 

(4) Active cooperation and fellowship among leaders of 
different racial groups. 

(5) Recognition by the community of its responsibility 
to less privileged persons of whatever race or group, not 
only for their assistance and protection but also for special 
educational and cultural opportunities. 

(6) The necessity of such economic and social change as 
shall open the way to full opportunity for persons of all 
races. 

However, it is as members of the church of Christ that 
Christians bear the heaviest guilt for the present situation. 
And here is their greatest obligation and opportunity: 

The first need is that the deepest inner attitude of every 
Christian toward persons of other races be completely trans¬ 
formed by the gracious gift of God into conformity with 
the mind of Christ. Persons of all races should become to 
the Christian sons and daughters of God, differing in color, 
in native endowment, in custom and outlook, but of one 
brotherhood in God’s love and so, by God’s grace, in the 


Additional Report — Church and Community 217 

affection of the Christian. It is a standing rebuke to Chris¬ 
tians that this attitude has in fact been more fully realized 
in some secular and non-Christian movements than within 
the churches. Such an inner transformation is to many 
Christians one of the richest gifts of God in which they 
greatly rejoice. It is a gift which every Christian should pos¬ 
sess and which God waits to bestow on all who will receive 
it. 

In the second place, Christian congregations are infected 
in their attitudes and practices by the same prejudices, fears, 
distortions of truth and exclusions as those which create the 
race problem in the secular community. But it is a first 
responsibility of the Christian church to demonstrate 
within its own fellowship the reality of community as God 
intends it. It is commissioned to call all men into the 
church, into a divine society that transcends all national 
and racial limitations and divisions. In its services of pub¬ 
lic worship, in its more informal fellowship and in its or- 
ganizaton, there can be no place on any pretext whatever 
for exclusion or compulsory segregation because of race or 
color. “ In Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, bar¬ 
barian nor Scythian, bond nor free.” The congregation or 
communion which allows its line of action to be determined 
by such racial discrimination denies the gospel whose proc¬ 
lamation is its task and commission. 

Third, in the Christian home there can be no barriers or 
discriminations because of race, color or social status. It is 
to be recognized that such a course may involve difficulties 
and raise apprehensions lest such intimate social intercourse 
lead to unwise marriages which would impose unfair handi¬ 
caps on later generations. Yet with all its difficulties it will 
be gladly undertaken by the Christian in confident loyalty 
to the free and gracious fellowship of Christ’s brethren. 

Fourth, against racial pride, racial hatreds and persecu- 


2 l8 


The Oxford Conference 


tions and the exploitation of other races in all their forms, 
the church is called by God to set its face implacably and 
to utter its word unequivocally both within and without its 
own borders. There is special need at this time that the 
church throughout the world bring every resource at its 
command against the sin of anti-Semitism. 

Finally, Christians both in their private lives and in their 
churches should take the lead in developing greater sym¬ 
pathy for those in need because of unequal opportunity, 
those who are excluded by prevailing community customs 
and sentiments, those who suffer persecution, anger and 
despite because of their race. They will seek to bring it 
about that each racial group is judged by its best representa¬ 
tives and by the worthiest contributions it has made to the 
life of humanity. A conscious and constant effort should 
be made to resist the fears and suspicions which tend to 
arise from unlikeness and to cultivate friendship and co¬ 
operation in all undertakings that are of common concern 
in the life of the community. Here Christians must expect 
to sacrifice popularity in loyalty to Christian insight and 
love. 


5. THE DIRECTION OF ADVANCE 

Advance is possible, and a clear responsibility rests on 
the church along two different lines — that of study and 
that of immediate action. There are problems in the rela¬ 
tion of church and community on which further ecumeni¬ 
cal thinking is necessary before effective Christian action 
can be taken. And there are certain concrete steps which 
can be taken at once. 

If the Christian conscience is to become a more effective 
force in the weekday lives of Christians and hence of the 
modern world, the church must attain a fuller insight into 
the will of God for the common life today. For this two 


Additional Report — Church and Community 219 

things are needed. One is a deeper understanding of the 
mind of God as revealed in Christ. The other is a more 
realistic understanding of the modern world. In the light 
of these, Christians must discover and formulate certain 
working principles on which they can agree as a common 
basis for Christian action and endeavor. Such “ middle 
axioms ” are intermediate between the ultimate basis of 
Christian action in community, “ Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself” — which though for Christians un¬ 
assailable, is too general to give much concrete guidance 
-for action — and the unguided intuition of the individual 
conscience. They are at best provisional and they are never 
unchallengeable or valid without exception or for all time, 
for it is in a changing world that God’s will has to be ful¬ 
filled. Yet as interim principles they are indispensable for 
any kind of common policy. 

But in most zones of the common life there are at this 
moment few such principles which are generally accepted 
by Christian people. Every day Christian individuals and 
groups are incurring responsibility for action or inaction on 
issues of the first magnitude, but there is no common mind 
among Christians by which they can be guided. But if our 
judgments are thus discordant it is largely because our 
thought and experience are still unduly partial and pro¬ 
vincial. The Oxford Conference and the preparation for 
it during the last three years have shown us something of 
what ecumenical discussion and study can do in promoting 
a deeper and truer and more really catholic apprehension. 
They have been only a beginning, however, and on many 
points we have only been able to clear the ground for such 
an advance by bringing out as clearly and trenchantly as 
possible the issues which at present divide us. The work 
thus begun must now be carried forward. 

Among the problems calling for concerted investigation 


220 The Oxford Conference 

by the best available Christian minds of all countries are the 
following: 

(1) The Christian understanding of God’s intention for 
the common life: How far the law of love which is to govern 
the inner lives and intimate personal relations of Christians 
apply also to their wider corporate relationships; what is the 
respective truth of the three main views described above, 
the views, namely, (a) that Christians should seek to bring 
all social life into conformity with the mind of Christ; ( b) 
that they should regulate their corporate relationships by 
the natural morality of justice rather than directly by the 
supernatural morality of redemptive love; (c) that the 
sphere of these relationships is subject to no ideal standard 
but only to inner necessities arising out of the need of pre¬ 
serving human life from chaos. 

(2) The problem of compromise for the Christian. 

(3) The true significance of the claims of the “ orders,” 
especially Volk and nation and their relation to the claims 
of the universal church and the family of God. 

(4) The nature of race; and in particular the question 
— partly scientific — of the desirability or unwisdom of in¬ 
termixture of races. 

IMMEDIATE STEPS: SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 

There is a call from God today 

(1) To every local congregation, to realize in its own 
self at any cost that unity transcending all differences and 
barriers of class, social status, race and nation, which the 
Holy Spirit can and will create in those who are ready to be 
led by him. 

(2) To the different churches in any district, to come to¬ 
gether for local ecumenical witness in worship and work. 

(3) To all Christians, to a more passionate and costly 


Additional Report — Church and Community 221 

concern for the outcast, the underprivileged, the perse¬ 
cuted, the despised in the community and beyond the com¬ 
munity; just as Jesus himself was “ moved with compas¬ 
sion ” for the multitude and spent most of his life in 
ministering to their needs by healing and preaching. The 
recrudescence of pitiless cruelty, hatred and race discrimi¬ 
nation in the modern world (including most notably anti- 
Semitism) is one of the major signs of its social disintegra¬ 
tion. To these must be brought not only the weak rebuke 
of words but the powerful rebuke of deeds. Thus the unity 
of the church is advanced. For the church has been called 
into existence by God not for itself but for the world; and 
only by going out of itself in the work of Christ can it find 
unity in itself. 

(4) To the church, to extend its concern to the particu¬ 
lar areas of life where existing conditions in health, housing, 
employment and recreation in their distinctive rural and 
urban forms, as well as misunderstandings between old and 
young and tension between men and women, continually 
undo its work and thwart the will of God for his children. 
Thus the church should seek to express God’s concern for 
every man in his own neighborhood and vocation. 

(5) To the church, and particularly to the younger 
churches, to show a deeper interest in, and concern for, the 
rural community through whose labor and toil mankind is 
clothed and fed and which is in many parts of the world the 
most important unit of social life. The Christian church 
must learn from the strong non-Christian religions to take 
root in these little communities, conserving what is best in 
their traditional life but demonstrating a quality of com¬ 
munal living inspired by faith in Jesus Christ and by 
Christlike love that shall both judge and transform the 
existing social environment. From these may come exam- 


222 


The Oxford Conference 


pies of Christian group life and of a fellowship in common 
labor and worship which will be a priceless contribution 
to the common life of the world. 

(6) To the church, to undertake new, prophetic and 
daring social experiments in local communities through 
which the general level of conscience may be raised. 

(7) To the church, to play a healing and reconciling 
part in the conflicts, misunderstandings and hatreds which 
arise between interests or classes within the local com¬ 
munity or nation. 

, (8) To those churches which have predominant influ¬ 

ence in any country, to set their faces against any persecu¬ 
tion of other churches or the raising of communal barriers 
to their free development. 

(9) To the churches, to promote united study, fellow¬ 
ship and action; and in particular to arrange that successful 
experiments within various churches in finding new chan¬ 
nels for the message of Christ to the people of this genera¬ 
tion shall be made known in other churches also. 

(10) To Christian men and women in the same vocation 
or industry, to meet together for prayerful discussion as to 
how, in their particular sphere of the common life, the prac¬ 
tical problems which arise can be dealt with as God would 
require. Herein is a special responsibility of the laity. 

(11) To members of the Christian church, to be ready 
to undertake responsibilities in local and national govern¬ 
ment. The church should seek to guide and support these 
its representatives in their efforts to solve the problems by 
which they are faced in the light of Christian principles. 

(12) To all Christians, to seek by simplicity and disci¬ 
pline in personal living to go beyond the accepted standards 
of the community in the direction of the love revealed in 
Christ. 

Finally, there is laid on the Christian churches in all 


Additional Report—Church and Community 223 

lands the obligation to create and to foster a solidarity and 
cooperation with one another that are stronger than all 
the divisions which now disrupt the family of mankind. 
The ecumenical movement which has found expression 
in the conference at Oxford should become an integral part 
of the life of every church, every local congregation, every 
individual Christian. To help to create it, to support it, to 
develop it, is a solemn responsibility to God, who so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son for its sin. 
Thus shall be plainly manifested to mankind in its chaos 
and division something of that peace and order of broth¬ 
erly love which come only from God and from Jesus Christ 
his Son, our Lord. 


ADDITIONAL REPORT OF THE SECTION 
ON CHURCH AND STATE * 


1. THE PRESENT SITUATION 

O ne of the outstanding facts in the present world situa¬ 
tion is the increasing significance of the state in the to¬ 
tal life of mankind. This shows itself not only in a great ex¬ 
pansion of the area of its competence, but in a far-reaching 
glorification and even religious exaltation of the state, its 
symbols and its representatives. This situation can be 
judged from many different standpoints, and as many dif¬ 
ferent practical attitudes will result. Our specific stand¬ 
point is that of the Christian church. 

Every attempt to understand the new tendencies in po¬ 
litical life today will be mistaken if it ignores its close 
relation to the comprehensive revolution through which 
mankind is passing in the modern world. 

(a) Disintegration and Reintegration in the Modern 
World. Generally speaking, one can describe the situation 
as a mixture of far-reaching disintegration and attempts at 
totalitarian reintegration. 

* This fuller report is based on the printed draft report issued in ad¬ 
vance of the conference to its members. This draft report was fully dis¬ 
cussed in the section and regarded as on the whole a satisfactory statement. 
It was agreed by the section that in addition to the shorter report presented 
to the conference there should also be a longer document based on the 
original draft. The section instructed its officers to prepare this revised 
draft of the memorandum in accordance with certain instructions given by 
the section, and in the light of the discussions both in the section and in 
the plenary session of the conference when the report was presented. Ow¬ 
ing to the shortness of the time in which the task had to be undertaken, 
the revision is less complete than had been intended, and the present report 
is to a large extent the original report with a considerable number of 
alterations and additions resulting from the discussions at Oxford. 


224 


Additional Report — Church and State 225 

Thinking men and women all over the world are increas¬ 
ingly coming to the conclusion that the present disintegra¬ 
tion of inherited institutions and values and the birth pangs 
of new forms of human behavior and community life are 
not merely one of the usual, recurring cycles of depressions; 
they are a sign of a deep-seated change in the whole of hu¬ 
man life. The World War and the period which followed 
it have revealed the breakup of Western civilization, a 
breakup the repercussions of which have affected other 
parts of the world and other civilizations. The industriali¬ 
zation and mechanization of life, as it has developed under 
the influence of the amazing progress of natural science 
during the last hundred years, not only betokens social 
progress but also gives rise to more doubtful consequences. 
The inherited social bonds and forms of community, which 
gave the individual standing ground and an organic con¬ 
nection with life, have been subjected in our time through 
excessive urbanization and active world trade to a continu¬ 
ous disruption. Morality and custom, which gave to the 
community a stable structure and to the individual security 
and a sense of direction derived from the legacy of wisdom 
bequeathed by his forefathers, have been widely under¬ 
mined by new ideals and ways of thought. The growth of 
natural communities, in which man could be in the full 
sense of the term at home, has been restricted or destroyed 
by the chance agglomeration of isolated individuals into 
anonymous masses, in which dull resignation or revolu¬ 
tionary resentment is the prevailing temper. 

But the dialectical character of the historical process is 
also recognizable today. It would give a one-sided picture 
if we were to emphasize only the aspect of disintegration. 
Powerful currents are flowing in the opposite direction and 
impelling toward new forms of community. The inborn 
longing of man for community and loyalty sets itself against 


226 


The Oxford Conference 


the unchartered freedom and individualistic atomism of 
our day. These movements nonetheless are apt to fall into 
the other extreme. The efforts to find a way out of the in¬ 
tolerable strain and difficulty of the life of our day also tend, 
unconsciously or expressly, to deny the positive achieve¬ 
ments of past generations. In many places the ideals of 
freedom, equality, self-determination and tolerance, and 
the newly awakened ideals of authority, obedience, sacrifice 
and surrender to the whole are regarded as mutually ex¬ 
clusive. Closely bound up with this attitude is the fact 
that the various forces which are seeking to check the proc¬ 
ess of widespread disintegration concentrate upon a par¬ 
ticular section of life which is declared to be the center of 
a new order to the exclusion of all others. The class, the 
people, the state, or some other entity is given an absolute 
value. It demands and receives full surrender and uncon¬ 
ditional loyalty. 

The process of disintegration and reintegration is found 
in very different forms in individual countries and parts of 
the world, and is felt with varying degrees of intensity. 
The continent of Europe, which was the scene of the World 
War, has been most deeply affected. Other countries, in 
which the forms of the state taken over from the nineteenth 
century have suffered little change and where the break¬ 
down of inherited forms of life has not affected the classes 
that have been politically and culturally in the ascendant, 
find themselves — or believe themselves to be — in a posi¬ 
tion of relative stability. But even here signs of an epochal 
change — social, political, moral — are recognizable. 

(b) DeChristianization of Society. These violent changes 
in the whole cultural life are closely bound up with moral 
and spiritual changes, rooted far back in history, the results 
of which are becoming especially clear to our generation. 
We are confronted by the fact that great masses of men are 


Additional Report—Church and State 227 

gripped by an irreligious secularism which, after a period 
of preponderant indifference to the Christian faith, is tak¬ 
ing an increasingly definite form and affecting an ever 
widening area of human life. Its relation to the Renais¬ 
sance and the Enlightenment is well known. It was fur¬ 
thered by modern natural science in the confidence that all 
human problems were soluble by the constructive intellect 
and through material means. It should not be forgotten 
also that the necessity for concentrating all energies on the 
provision of a bare minimum for existence, which consti¬ 
tuted the life of untold numbers of men, exhausted the 
spiritual and moral capacity of great masses. The securing 
of the outward means of life, the pursuit of individual and 
collective good fortune, were ruling ideals which also con¬ 
ditioned the ethical content of social life. The period after 
the World War showed in a terrible way that this secu¬ 
larism and practical materialism had only one more step to 
take to pass over into an aggressive and intolerant atheism 
bent on fashioning a new kind of man, not only in indiffer¬ 
ence but in conscious opposition to God. 

A new element in this situation lies in the fact that this 
wave of secularism, which left a spiritual vacuum by de¬ 
stroying inherited religious symbols and ethical values, is 
accompanied by the irruption of new forms of faith and 
the rediscovery of old religions. The suppressed religious 
longing of secularized humanity is breaking through with 
elemental force and taking form in movements which in¬ 
spire a passionate subordination to the collectivity. Men 
are following the many social and political symbols and 
banners with religious fervor because they promise them a 
unifying center for life and a new fellowship. Man, adrift 
from God, is making himself new idols because he cannot 
live without some object of adoration and sacrifice. 

(c) The Depreciation and the Glorification of Political 


228 


The Oxford Conference 


Authority. The intensive struggle for political power is 
part and parcel of the confusing blend of contradictory pur¬ 
poses and mutually hostile forces which characterizes this 
period of extensive change. On the one hand, the process 
of secularization and increasing disintegration has invaded 
the sphere of the state, has robbed it of its religious glamor, 
and has made political authority merely a means in the 
competition between private and collective interests. The 
proclamation of an untrammelled individualism, the pre¬ 
ponderance of economic aims, the unchecked exploitation 
of parliamentary institutions for the prosecution of group 
and class interests and of political liberties for revolution¬ 
ary movements, are some of the factors which in many lands 
have helped to undermine political authority and have pro¬ 
duced the danger of political impotence and universal 
anarchy. To a large extent respect for law and order has 
disappeared. Frequently the state, which ought to have 
been able to check this process of general disintegration, has 
not done so; indeed, sometimes it has even helped to accel¬ 
erate it. 

The swing of the pendulum has come with amazing 
rapidity. In some countries groups or parties, impelled by 
a passionate sense of “ mission,” have seized political power 
by means of revolution and have not lost a moment in con¬ 
solidating and strengthening their position. The longing 
of the masses for a new order of life, whatever form it may 
assume, if only it promises to relieve the intolerable strain 
of their social and political condition, has given the im¬ 
petus to this renewed belief in the state. Thus the new 
state — as a powerful body which supports and fulfills col¬ 
lective aspirations and as a helper in time of urgent need — 
is acclaimed with gratitude, homage and surrender. More 
and more powerfully the state is asserting and enforcing its 
claim on man. In many places, however, this new estimate 


Additional Report — Church and State 229 

of and actual increase in the power of the state goes much 
further. Just as in former times men were familiar with 
the ruler who claimed absolute homage or divine honors, 
so today the principle of personal rule and individual re¬ 
sponsibility for the direction of the state has been reborn. 
World philosophies, old and new, provide the theoretical 
apparatus for this cult of the state and strengthen its emo¬ 
tional appeal. The state becomes the bearer of a myth. 

(d) The Emergence of Totalitarian Tendencies . The 
dangerous character of this general intensification of the 
power of the state in both theory and practice is due to 
the fact that in many countries it is connected with a totali¬ 
tarian claim. It is true, of course, that at earlier periods in 
history the state has sometimes extended its claim beyond 
the political and legal sphere into the sphere of personal and 
social life. The principle of sovereignty, which is essential 
to the modern state, is potentially totalitarian. In the age 
of absolutism and religious intolerance the state exercised 
its influence over wide spheres of personal and corporate 
life, and the democratic and liberal movements of the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were essentially a reac¬ 
tion against this absolutism. The nineteenth and twen¬ 
tieth centuries, with their economic and social problems 
and the increased financial power of the state, came to be¬ 
lieve more and more in the effectiveness of state regulation. 
Yet it was only during and after the World War that this 
tendency extended once more to the spiritual sphere, claim¬ 
ing the right to mold man as a whole. In a number of 
countries, where the disintegration of the community had 
reached an advanced stage, the total unification of com¬ 
munity life, with the help of all the means of political 
power, was felt by many people to be the only way out of 
the threatened chaos. 

It would, however, lead to a false judgment if we spoke 


The Oxford Conference 


230 

of totalitarian tendencies only in connection with certain 
countries. It is of the utmost importance to bear in mind 
that the totalitarian state is only the political expression of 
a tendency which can just as well take other forms and have 
other points of crystallization. Even in countries where 
the ruling ideas are those of liberalism and democracy, 
economic and political forces are at work which must lead 
to a rigid control of economic life, of public opinion, of 
national habits, and in general to a greater unification of 
the national being. Even where the state does not seek to 
influence men directly, but leaves wide room for the ac¬ 
tivities of religious and other formative societies, such tend¬ 
encies are nonetheless noticeable. The steadily growing 
submission of citizens to public education and services, the 
unifying influence, often unconscious, which the ruling 
social group exerts over the whole of society, lead in fact to 
a uniformity of spirit and of behavior. The universal na¬ 
ture of totalitarianism becomes even more strikingly evi¬ 
dent when we consider its close relation to war. The 
World War meant for the belligerent nations an experi¬ 
ment in the total unification of the functions of society on 
a scale hitherto almost unknown. So, too, anxiety about 
the next war and the military necessity of preparing the 
people over a long period of time for this terrible possibility 
are powerful incentives to totalitarian development. 

(e) The Relation of the State to the Church. It is a sign 
of the times that the church situation of our own day is 
frequently compared with the pre-Constantine period. 
The reason for this comparison does not lie mainly in the 
fact that in certain countries the Christian church is being 
persecuted or threatened with suppression. It is justified 
chiefly because the Christian church is now confronted by 
masses of people who are alienated from her, either in a 
spirit of indifference or of active hostility. 


Additional Report — Church and State 231 

After the freedom of the pre-Constantine period the 
church became in large degree dependent on the state and 
the groups which ruled it. It was only after the medieval 
state had been weakened by feudalism and the power of a 
state controlled by the will of a single ruler had been broken 
up into a variety of contractual relations between classes 
and corporations that a progressive emancipation of the 
church became possible. The fact that the church, as a 
result of the weakness of the state, itself gained temporal 
power and was thus able to confront the state on a footing 
of equality as an independent authority, endangered its 
own inmost nature. As soon as the modem state — in the 
fifteenth century — began to develop its sovereignty, it suc¬ 
ceeded in reasserting its dominion over the church within 
its territory by means of the jus reformandi. The reli¬ 
gious division following on the Reformation brought the 
churches into closer association with and dependence upon 
the state. Even after the ruling classes, as a result of the 
Enlightenment, had to some extent drifted away from the 
church the old close relation between church and state still 
existed. It was not until the nineteenth century that this 
bond was loosened, and the religious neutrality of the lib¬ 
eral state became an essential element in this process of 
secularization. It is true, of course, that at the present time 
in certain countries the attitude of the state is not only 
tolerant but in a varying degree also friendly, so that fruit¬ 
ful cooperation is still possible. But here too the increasing 
secularization of political life is bearing its fruit. A little 
noticed subordination of the church to the state is found 
in the fact that the church is seldom favored for its own 
sake, but only in so far as it is regarded as useful for the 
welfare of the state or as part of the historical inheritance 
of the nation. Thus modern states are severing them¬ 
selves from Christian influence. Many have already gone 


The Oxford Conference 


232 

a step further and h&ve deprived the churches of those 
official rights formerly granted them by the state, thus plac¬ 
ing the churches in an entirely new situation. Where an 
aggressive atheism is rampant within a state the repression 
of the church and a return to pre-Constantine conditions 
are inevitable. 

(f) The Need for Repentance and Reconsecration. 
Such a diagnosis of the present life of the state does not give 
the church any reason to indulge in a pharisaical compla¬ 
cency. The church itself is involved in this whole situa¬ 
tion. It is itself part and parcel of this lost world, with its 
absolutisms and its heresies, its inadequacy and its rebellion 
against God. The church is forced to recognize that the 
present situation, with all its suffering and its distress, with 
all its despairing attempts to create in its own strength a 
world apart from God, is a judgment upon itself. It must 
recognize, in the totalitarianism of the present day, an 
indictment of its own individualism and false spiritu¬ 
ality. Its inward weakness and division, its lack of trust in 
the power of its Lord to conquer the evil in the heart of 
man in the world, its unreadiness to face the facts and the 
problems of a new period in history, have to a great extent 
prevented it from proclaiming the good news of the divine 
salvation with convincing authority. The church has 
taken too little trouble to show and to make visible in its 
own life the meaning of the fact that “ the kingdom of God 
is among you.” 

2 . THE CRUCIAL ISSUES BEFORE THE CHURCH 

In the two thousand years of its history the church has 
known no escape from the struggle to achieve in the light 
of its own message a right attitude toward the problems 
and tasks with which the existence of the state confronts it. 
At every period the same problem presents itself anew. In 


Additional Report—Church and State 233 

our own time, in which perhaps to a greater extent than 
in any previous generation the traditional solutions and 
the experiences of the past have been thrown into the melt¬ 
ing pot, it is more than ever necessary that the church 
should come to grips with this problem in all its range and 
complexity and not be content to concern itself merely 
with matters of secondary importance or with palliatives. 
There are three main groups of questions which in this field 
call for fundamental thought and responsible action in the 
coming years by Christian men and women throughout the 
world. 

(a) The Christian Sanction of the State. The over¬ 
straining of political authority in the direction of absolut¬ 
ism and mythological idealization and its demand for un¬ 
reserved loyalty and devotion, and equally on the other 
hand the opposing tendencies to minimize or even to deny 
the rights of the state, have raised with a new urgency the 
question of the sanction of political sovereignty. As soon 
as the church attempts to define its attitude toward par¬ 
ticular questions of politics it is inevitably forced back on 
the ultimate question of the function of the state in God’s 
providential ordering of human life. 

(b) The Responsibility of the Church to the State. The 
functions of the state in modern social life are extremely 
comprehensive and many-sided. The state is not merely 
concerned with external security and the maintenance of 
internal order and justice. It takes both science and eco¬ 
nomics under its guardianship. It is actively interested in 
the education of the rising generation and in the religious 
and moral life of the people. By its decisions, by its foster¬ 
ing or its neglect of the manifold interests of society, it di¬ 
rects the whole in accordance with its will. While the 
Christian’s loyalty to the state cannot imply an unreserved 
submission to its will and while in most civil matters con- 


The Oxford Conference 


234 

siderable latitude is allowed for the exercise of personal re¬ 
sponsibility, the question nevertheless arises for the con¬ 
science, Wherein lies the distinctive responsibility of the 
church and of its members in relation to the state in all its 
varied activities? What light does the Christian under¬ 
standing of life shed on the wide field of political action and 
on the way in which its responsibilities may be fulfilled in 
obedience to the will of God? 

(c) The Christian View of Freedom and Authority. 
The immense extension of the field of state activity and 
authority during the past century, and especially the power¬ 
ful totalitarian tendencies in modern society since the 
World War, have given a new urgency to the question of the 
limits of political authority and of the freedom of personal, 
religious, cultural and other forms of activity within the 
common life. A Christian answer is needed to a double 
question — that of the freedom of the church and of its 
members to bear witness within the political order in word 
and deed to their Lord, and that of the freedom of men in 
general to live in accordance with the high responsibility of 
those who have been created in the image of God. 

3. THE POSITION OF THE CHURCH 

(1) The Christian Sanction of the State 

(a) The Church as the Starting Point. The practical at¬ 
titudes which Christians adopt toward the state and also 
their judgment concerning these attitudes reveal the widest 
diversity not only in regard to concrete matters but also in 
regard to fundamental questions of political life. These 
differences have their roots in the last resort in different 
convictions regarding the religious meaning of the state in 
the total context of life. The difference of starting point 
and approach is undoubtedly one of the principal causes of 
this disagreement. Sometimes Christians have taken indi- 


Additional Report — Church and State 235 

vidual statements in the Bible — for example, sayings in the 
Sermon on the Mount or utterances of St. Paul — as deter¬ 
mining their political judgment and attitude. Sometimes 
they have allowed their actions and reactions to be gov¬ 
erned by a particular affirmation of faith taken in isolation 
— for example, the kingdom of God, or the worth of hu¬ 
man personality, or the unbridgeable opposition between 
the use of force and Christian love. At other times they 
have treated a contemporary solution of the relation be¬ 
tween church and state which is valid for a particular his¬ 
torical epoch as being normative for all times, and have 
employed it as a standard for the solution of the problems 
of their own age. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that the conceptions of 
the distinctively Christian understanding of political issues 
reveal a wide diversity in Christian thought today. Many 
Christians, for example, are convinced that the church is 
the only true interpreter of the divine law implanted in the 
essential nature of things, and consequently is entitled to 
speak the authoritative word not only in regard to the mo¬ 
tives which determine men’s attitude in the political order 
but also regarding the purpose and nature of the state. 
Similarly others find in the witness of the Bible as a whole 
not only standards for the exercise of Christian responsi¬ 
bility in politics but also a deeper insight into the constitu¬ 
tive elements of political life than the ordinary reason or 
political experience can give. Others again believe that 
the Christian message does not include any new under¬ 
standing of the meaning of the state, but only provides di¬ 
vine guidance for the personal attitude of the Christian 
within the political order. 

All these differences, however, converge at an important 
point — i.e., the existence of the church. It is one of the 
most cheering and promising signs of our times that Chris- 


The Oxford Conference 


236 

tians all over the world have a growing consciousness of 
what the church of Jesus Christ in its distinctive being and 
fullness signifies as a living reality in the midst of this 
world. The more it is realized that the church is the great 
sustaining reality of life, the more will individual Chris¬ 
tians and groups reach accord in their endeavors to bring 
political life under the sovereignty of Christ. The church 
of Christ as the community in which grace and love are at 
work in the totality of its life and witness must be our com¬ 
mon standing ground. It is true that the affirmation of 
this truth will not automatically remove all our differences 
and difficulties, since the deepest divergences manifest 
themselves precisely in our understanding of the church. 
They will, however, be seen in a new perspective and find 
a common orientation. 

(b) The Contemporary State. Political realities, politi¬ 
cal and legal theories, and ethical valuations, all in the 
most varied combinations, help to determine the under¬ 
standing of the state. It is important to emphasize this fact 
here because many differences in the Christian attitude 
thereby become intelligible. Not only does Christian and 
theological thought influence political thought and politi¬ 
cal attitudes, but there is also a reverse influence. Of two 
Christians who hold the same form of Christian belief, the 
one as the result of his political experience may view the 
state primarily as a form of organic community providing 
for its order and advancement, while the other may see it 
above all as a harsh instrument of force, and thus the two 
must inevitably arrive at different judgments regarding the 
concrete questions of political conduct. The historical 
situation in which political action takes place must also be 
taken into account. 

The word “ state ” is not everywhere used in the same 
sense. While in some countries it focuses the attention 


Additional Report — Church and State 237 

primarily on the agents of political life — namely, the 
people and government — in other areas the state is seen 
primarily as a community of law, the organs of which with 
their different responsibilities hold only a secondary place. 
In both cases, however, the same reality of social life is in¬ 
tended, and here also the conception is used in this sense 
and not as a philosophical abstraction. Not only in the 
long course of history but also in the contemporary situa¬ 
tion the state appears in the most diverse forms and stages 
of development. Nonetheless it has one universal and de¬ 
cisive mark. Everywhere in recent centuries political 
power has consolidated itself in the name of sovereignty, 
whether this is exercised by parliaments, by dictators, or 
by parties, and it has established its complete independence 
over against other social powers and over against the church. 
The state, whether it is organized as a democracy or parlia¬ 
ment or dictatorship, claims itself to determine and to make 
obligatory on all its subjects the extent of its competence 
and in what constitutional forms it will exercise it. It is 
true that there are states — for example, federal states — in 
which the political power is in a peculiar way distributed 
among different political entities. But even here there is 
a hierarchy of authority. The decisive matter is that every 
man is always and everywhere incorporated in a political 
order, or state, which assigns to him rights and duties, and 
from which he cannot escape so long as he remains within 
its sphere of power. Even the states which allow their citi¬ 
zens to participate in the framing of the laws and accord 
them much personal liberty, claim the right to determine 
with absolute freedom the extent of these rights and liber¬ 
ties through the recognized constitutional organ. And this 
claim, even in states which desire to be regarded as Chris¬ 
tian, does not stop short at the church or freedom of wor¬ 
ship or freedom of conscience. 


The Oxford Conference 


238 

The state, under the influence of political doctrines 
which go back directly or indirectly to the ancient theory 
of the state, is regarded as a social organism, as the indis¬ 
pensable and beneficial means of human coordination. 
The more recent political theories of political or social con¬ 
tract derive the state from the will of the people, which in 
it acquires a legal form, and have powerfully influenced 
political thought up to the present time. This view how¬ 
ever is not undisputed. It is urged against it that the state 
essentially means a domination of one over others even 
when externally its constitution presents a different ap¬ 
pearance. Whether it is true or not in particular historical 
situations, it is a fact that the state always tends, at least 
to a certain extent, to promote as the impartial bearer of 
power the interests of the whole, since this is the presuppo¬ 
sition of the stability and endurance of every form of rule. 

The state, and in a special sense the modern state, cannot 
be understood unless account is taken of the element of 
power. Externally the state is limited only by the power of 
other states and by international law, which, however, is 
not assured by any superior collective authority and which 
assumes before all else the independence of each state. In¬ 
ternally the supreme will of the state is limited only by the 
forms which the constitution provides for the formation of 
the political will. Unrestricted in the determination of its 
aims, the state possesses a monopoly of force and of the 
means of exercising it. The state plays therefore in the so¬ 
cial existence of man a peculiar and predominant role, and 
since all power in the state rests in the last resort in the 
hands of men this fullness of power can be experienced not 
only by the ruling parties and by leaders of the state, but 
also by whole peoples. In this power lies not only the 
possibility of fulfilling the necessary tasks of the state on be¬ 
half of its people and on behalf of humanity, but also the 


Additional Report — Church and State 239 

great temptation to overstrain and abuse it. It is only the 
church that in the last resort can show the state the limit 
of its power. 

(c) The Christian Sanction of the State. Throughout 
the centuries the Christian conscience has continually in¬ 
sisted that, whatever view may be taken of the political 
order, it is not a sphere of action unrelated to God. It has 
held firmly to the witness of the Bible that God is at work 
even in political life. It has regarded the paradoxical atti¬ 
tude of the early Christians as in accordance with reality. 
On the one hand the New Testament regards the state as a 
divine institution which has a definite part to play in the 
divine plan of salvation. On the other hand it points to 
diabolical forces at work in the political sphere. These affir¬ 
mations of faith that the exercise of the political function 
is a manifestation of the divine will, and that it is none¬ 
theless constantly being perverted and misused, are funda¬ 
mental for our view of politics and have important conse¬ 
quences. The state has a divine sanction. Its authority 
and its dignity are based upon this fact. But it is not an 
end in itself nor a final end. It exists to serve the purposes 
of God. Thus all political action is confronted by the in¬ 
evitable alternative, whether it is to be an instrument of 
or an obstacle to the gracious rule of God. 

When, however, we try to develop this fundamentally 
Christian view of the state in greater detail we find differ¬ 
ences of opinion. Many Christians regard the state as an 
expression of the divine law which penetrates the universe 
as a whole. The state is an order based upon the need of 
men for social life and serves the purpose of insuring order, 
peace and temporal welfare for the community. The di¬ 
vine law in the nature of things is both the origin and the 
criterion of all political life. It is an ideal which lays prac¬ 
tical obligations upon mankind. But only in the church 


The Oxford Conference 


240 

does the higher meaning of the state become evident. The 
state is a temporal means for guiding man toward his super¬ 
natural end. 

Another view also derives the authority of the state from 
the divine moral world order. The moral obligations 
which are written in the conscience of all men are to be 
realized in the state. The state serves the divine purpose 
by realizing the ideals of humanity — freedom, equality 
and universal well-being — and by guaranteeing to all men 
the most favorable external conditions for their free self¬ 
development. 

A third view lays special emphasis upon the connection 
between the state and the nation and regards the nation 
as the preeminent form of social life, established by God 
himself. In this view the nation is conceived as the social 
form of human life which transcends all others. The state 
is the organization of the national community and the agent 
by which its historical mission is achieved. Since by its 
sovereignty it protects and furthers the undisturbed devel¬ 
opment of the national character, it must be recognized by 
the Christian church as an instrument of the divine will 
manifested in history. 

A fourth view lays the main stress on the element of coer¬ 
cion in the state, and on the radical disintegration which 
continually threatens the community through the presence 
of human sinfulness and social evil. The state is regarded 
as a dike to keep out the floods of chaos, as a harsh and in¬ 
dispensable instrument of the divine will which makes 
possible a relatively peaceful and humane life. It belongs 
to the paradoxical nature of the state that in its exercise 
of force it seems to be absolutely opposed to the Christian 
virtues of love, humility and gentleness, and yet that it must 
be accepted as a well fitted instrument of the sovereign will 
of God for the prevention of disaster. The authority and 


Additional Report — Church and State 241 

legal order of the state are the one fixed point on which in 
the fallen world the whole social order depends. 

(2) The Responsibility of the Church toward the State 
(a) Christian Loyalty to the State. The responsibility 
of the church and of its members toward the state is 
grounded in its obedience to God. The attitude of Chris¬ 
tians to the actual states in which they live will in conse¬ 
quence have a double character. It will be positive and at 
the same time critical. It is a Christian duty to cooperate 
in the shaping of the political order through prayer, obedi¬ 
ence and active participation. But both unqualified sub¬ 
mission to the prescriptions of the authorities and a passive 
indifference to political issues are irreconcilable with the 
conviction that God is the unconditional Lord of this 
sphere of human life. Members of the church are the 
apostles of a righteous and loving God, and they must take 
the lead in courageous criticism, in the realistic testing of 
political ideals and methods by their contribution to the 
common good, and in an unceasing struggle for a fuller 
realization of the demands of justice and love both in legis¬ 
lation and in administration, both in local and in national 
government. If individual Christians or groups are com¬ 
pelled for the sake of conscience and after consultation 
with their fellow Christians to disobey measures taken by 
the state, the church, whether national or supra-national, 
should stand by them and thereby show the solidarity of 
the community of faith. Where circumstances permit it 
should make representations to the state with a view to a 
removal of the difficulties. A controversial question which 
has again become acute in many parts of the world and 
calls for earnest attention is the question at what points 
disobedience to the commands of the state becomes a Chris¬ 
tian duty and by what means it should find expression — 


The Oxford Conference 


242 

e.g., how far the use of political pressure or even of revolu¬ 
tionary methods, in distinction from passive resistance, is 
legitimate for the attainment of social ends which appear 
from the Christian standpoint to be necessary. 

The church has thus a direct and positive responsibility 
for the state and for its proper functioning. In this con¬ 
nection three large groups of questions make a special ap¬ 
peal to the Christian conscience. These are the Christian 
concern for the maintenance of law and justice, the exercise 
of force in the political sphere, and the task of the state in 
the cultural life of the community. 

(b) The Christian Concern for the Maintenance of Law 
and Justice. The exercise of political power is, in the 
Christian view, not an end in itself. It is subordinate to 
the claim of God to be sovereign Lord and is to be used for 
his purposes. The message of the Old and New Testa¬ 
ments as well as the message of the church throughout the 
centuries expresses this conviction by saying that justice is 
the directive and limiting norm of all political conduct. In 
political strife, where one claim is opposed by another, 
what matters finally is the justice of God and his claim. 
This fundamental conviction leads to far-reaching conclu¬ 
sions. It relegates all political and social conflict to a sec¬ 
ondary plane and removes its sting, since it commits the 
result to the hidden decision of God. It is at the same time 
a powerful incentive to the struggle for greater justice in 
all spheres of life. 

For many Christians, justice as a political norm consists 
in giving to every man his due in his actual situation and 
his actual need. The principle of suum cuique and the 
norms of natural law which can be derived from it are re¬ 
garded as the standard for the legal order of the community 
both in the relation of the citizens to one another and also 
in the relation between the state and its citizens. These 


Additional Report — Church and State 243 

principles of natural law, which struggle for realization in 
the legal organization of the community, are derived from 
the divine law which inspires and holds together the whole 
order of the universe. Justice, therefore, can never mean 
the mere affirmation of existing social and economic con¬ 
ditions. In the dynamic course of history the eternal order 
of the divine justice is ever struggling for fresh expression. 
Therefore the maintenance of law and order means an un¬ 
ceasing adjustment to the eternal order of law, and this in 
turn means a constantly renewed adjustment of the various 
social rights and duties for the sake of the common good. 

Other Christians, however, would deny that this attempt 
to interpret justice in terms of the suum cuique throws any 
light upon the specifically Christian conception of law and 
order. Rather, they would say, we must seek the criteria 
for Christian judgment and action in political matters in 
the revealed will of God. Some find decisive standards in 
the precepts and statements of the Bible, above all in the 
Ten Commandments. Others lay more emphasis upon 
the paradoxical and, indeed, antithetical relation between 
the principle of justice and that self-sacrificing love which 
Christ has revealed in his life and death as the will of God. 
They regard the law — as a definite way of ordering the re¬ 
lation between individuals and groups in the community 
— primarily as a barrier against human caprice and arro¬ 
gance. The system of law, moreover, inasmuch as it defines 
and limits the spheres of power in relation to one another 
and gives to the institutions of the community stability, 
constancy, the power of planning for the future, and se¬ 
curity, is a protection from the danger of anarchy. Finally, 
the critical principle of justice, which is ever at work within 
the law, is a force continually making for improvement. 
But even justice is not the highest end of political life but 
always something that falls short of the highest. It is al- 


The Oxford Conference 


244 

ways pointing in hidden ways to something it cannot itself 
achieve, namely, that fellowship of divine love where there 
is no adjustment of rights and claims, because surrender 
and mutual service are regarded as the supreme law. But 
this does not mean that the legal order is superfluous for the 
Christian. Since he is still a sinner he needs it as a help 
and as a restraint. The sovereignty of Christ in and 
through his church transcends, it is true, all earthly legal 
orders, but at the same time it penetrates into them with 
its sanctifying and transforming influence. Hence the 
hidden meaning of the order of law is fulfilled only where 
the many difficult tasks and responsibilities of political life 
are subordinated to the command of the living and holy 
God, since “ love is the fulfillment of the law/’ 

(c) The Place of Force in the Political Sphere. The 
most difficult problem for the Christian conscience in po¬ 
litical life is the use of force as a means of asserting the po¬ 
litical will to power against all opposition. This conflict 
between Christian love and the use of force reaches its 
tragic climax in war. The great expansion of the activity 
of the state and the consequent dependence of men, both 
in their personal life and in their economic existence, on 
political factors, combined with the methods of influencing 
the masses provided by modem technique, have made it 
possible for the state to subject its citizens in a new way 
not only to physical pressure but also to moral and spiritual 
pressure. All these new developments make it necessary 
that fresh thought be given to the traditional doctrine of 
the “ sword ” of the state and to the question of the legiti¬ 
macy and limits of the use of force. 

The necessity for the use of force, however difficult and 
morally questionable it may be, must be admitted in prin¬ 
ciple, since without it the state would not be able to main¬ 
tain the system of law and order which it protects. But 


Additional Report — Church and State 245 

there is much well grounded difference of opinion on the 
question whether certain kinds of force are under all cir¬ 
cumstances forbidden to the Christian, and at what point 
in concrete instances the line should be drawn. These dif¬ 
ferences come out particularly clearly in opinions about 
war. But in spite of these differences there is a settled 
Christian conviction that the use of force, however unavoid¬ 
able it may be for the fulfillment of the distinctive tasks of 
the state, is in itself absolutely opposed to the love com¬ 
mandment and that it can be used only in the certainty of 
divine forgiveness. It is therefore part of the political re¬ 
sponsibility of the community to watch the ends for which 
the state uses its power and also to see that the use of force 
is reduced to a minimum. Further, it should be insisted 
that the exercise of force, apart from exceptional instances 
of extreme emergency, should take place within the frame¬ 
work of generally accepted law and should remain the ex¬ 
clusive monopoly of the organs of the state, in order that it 
may not become the instrument either of caprice or of the 
private and collective lust of power. 

(d) The Function of the State in the Cultural Life of the 
Community . Another question which has become increas¬ 
ingly urgent in the modern state is that of the responsibility 
of the state for the cultural life of the community, in the 
widest sense of the word. Control by the state of culture 
and national morality is no new phenomenon. The an¬ 
cient “ polis ” is a typical example of this view of the state. 
On the contrary, it may be maintained that the partial re¬ 
lease of these spheres from state control within the liberal 
state represents something new in political history. It is 
in any case an incontestable fact that the contemporary state 
is not content merely to protect the varied life of the com¬ 
munity by means of its political and legal organization, but 
claims the right to direct the mind and heart of the nation 


The Oxford Conference 


246 

along definite lines. The extent to which this takes place, 
of course, varies greatly. 

The claim of the state to control the cultural life and 
to monopolize popular education, public opinion and the 
character training of its citizens creates a serious issue for 
the church. The situation which it has to meet is that the 
state may develop into a secularized church with a world 
view of its own. The problem is one of the first urgency, 
to which Christian thought must be directed with far 
greater energy than has yet been shown. 

(3) The Christian View of Freedom and Authority 

(a) The Nature of the Problem. The modern growth of 
non-Christian forms of totalitarianism, whether these find 
their center in class or race or nation or in some other spe¬ 
cial segment of life, has brought strongly into the fore¬ 
ground the question of sovereignty and freedom and the 
limits of political control. The point at which the church 
comes into immediate conflict with the totalitarian tenden¬ 
cies of the state is where these tendencies are inspired by a 
myth and a religious or pseudo-religious claim on the un¬ 
conditional devotion of men — in other words, where these 
tendencies attempt to be a substitute for the church. In 
many countries the attempt is being made by direct politi¬ 
cal pressure or by the pressure of public opinion or by other 
more subtle methods to inoculate the church with the rul¬ 
ing ideology. Elsewhere also there is found a tendency 
through the use of political measures to curtail the freedom 
of the church at one point or another and to impose on it 
fetters which restrict the free carrying out of its mission. 
The church has in these circumstances an immediate inter¬ 
est in the limitation of the state’s authority in order that 
it may be free to carry out its special task. 

This development in the direction of an extension of 


Additional Report — Church and State 247 

political influence and authority may be observed also in 
other spheres. The relation of the state and freedom has 
today become a burning question in regard to the family, 
science, public morals, and philosophical outlook. With 
growing insistence, therefore, the question is addressed to 
the church of its witness and action when human person¬ 
ality is denied, when truth and right are subordinated to 
utilitarian ends, or when the state arbitrarily, by physical 
or moral pressure, deprives men of their own independent 
life. It is indispensable that the church clarify its mind 
in respect to the grounds on which it regards human free¬ 
dom in general even over against the state as a special con¬ 
cern of its own, and in regard to the measures which it 
ought to take to conserve this freedom. What is at stake is 
the Christian understanding of man. It is on this point that 
the Christian teaching regarding the worth and freedom 
of man has a decisive importance, since to a large extent it 
must determine the attitude of the church toward all po¬ 
litical measures which do not directly touch the exercise 
of its own functions. 

(b) The Freedom of the Church in its Different Func¬ 
tions. In thinking of the church, more particularly in re¬ 
lation to the state, we tend under the influence of earlier 
habits of thought to think in the first instance of the con¬ 
trast between a state church and a free church. We think, 
that is to say, of the organic and legal connection between 
church and state and of the degree of state supervision of 
the churches. This tendency in thinking was natural so 
long as the state acknowledged the fact of the church and 
of the Christian faith, but when the state as a result of secu¬ 
larization adopted more and more a neutral or aloof atti¬ 
tude toward Christianity and the churches, or rejected 
the Christian faith altogether, or attempted to subordinate 
it to its own aims and world view, questions of jura in sacra 


The Oxford Conference 


248 

and jura circa sacra became of secondary importance. Here 
we are concerned primarily with the freedom of the church 
which is necessary for its own existence, quite apart from 
the question whether the church is organically connected 
with the state or is a free organization legally recognized 
or tolerated by the state. 

The church as the messenger of the gospel and as the 
community in which freedom in God is a living reality 
represents the ultimate boundary against totalitarian tend¬ 
encies of every kind. The existence of the church is a bar¬ 
rier to every attempt to build a common life on a purely 
secular basis. The church is free in so far as it is true to its 
Lord, and it must maintain this freedom against all the 
claims and temptations of the world. Hence the freedom 
of the church cannot be given from the outside by the state. 
The most the state can do is to give the church legal protec¬ 
tion. When it gives this the church will gratefully accept 
it as a conscious or unconscious tribute of the political au¬ 
thorities to the sovereignty of its Lord. But when the 
church’s freedom is restricted the conflict between church 
and state becomes acute. For the church demands freedom 
to proclaim the gospel to all mankind and in all spheres of 
life, not for its own sake but because it has received this 
commission from God, who is also Lord of the state. 

This freedom of the church, which it must in case of 
necessity defend against the encroachment of the state, in¬ 
cludes all the functions which are necessary for carrying 
out its own commission. It is this public character of the 
church which makes the whole problem so difficult. Secret 
communion with God in prayer and worship cannot be 
attacked by the state, but the public proclamation of the 
gospel and its application to the whole sphere of Christian 
life can be restricted and hindered by the state in various 
ways. 


Additional Report — Church and State 249 

First in importance comes the public proclamation of 
the Christian message. Since this message lays bare the self- 
assertion of the world and its denial of its Creator, and 
proclaims the new salvation wrought by God in Christ, it 
is directed to mankind as a whole. Hence the church can¬ 
not refrain from using all available methods of public 
communication such as speech, print, the press and the 
radio. This freedom includes as a matter of course oppor¬ 
tunities for common worship and of association for church 
purposes apart from periods of ordinary public worship. 
The conduct of foreign missions must also be included 
among the fundamental functions of the church. 

Under modern conditions, in which the secularized com¬ 
munity is emancipating itself from Christian influence in 
its motives and standards, it is of decisive importance for 
the future of the church that it should be allowed to bring 
up and educate its own members in the spirit of Chris¬ 
tianity. 

The freedom which the church must claim includes also 
its service of love to those who are in need, to the sick, and 
to the oppressed. It must include further the opportunity 
of cooperation through its members in the transformation 
of the social order in the light of the divine will. 

The religious discharge of this task presupposes that the 
church is able to regulate its external forms of church order 
and administration according to its own principles, whether 
with or without the understanding and support of the 
state authorities. This requirement is of special impor¬ 
tance for the existence of ecclesiastical minorities, since 
they are most readily exposed to the danger of interference 
in their life by the state or by a church representing the 
majority or by a particular ecclesiastical group through the 
exercise of political pressure. 

(c) The Christian Interest in Human Freedom in Gen- 


The Oxford Conference 


250 

eral. In regard to the responsibility of the church for the 
maintenance of human freedom, its extent and the means 
and ways of its realizations, there exists considerable dis¬ 
agreement among Christians. Attention may be briefly 
directed to three conceptions which have their roots in pro¬ 
found theological differences. 

For many Christians the unhindered self-development 
of the personality is the starting point of their thought 
about these questions. The state exists for the sake of the 
free man. The independence of the individual person and 
his freedom to fulfill himself in accordance with the im¬ 
manent laws of his being is the decisive limit of the state. 
Since, according to this view, personal individuality is the 
highest good in history, every political and legal measure 
which infringes on the personal life is unjustified. It is 
plainly one of the primary responsibilities of the church to 
further this unhindered freedom of every man and to pro¬ 
tect it against attacks from the side of the state, since it is the 
gospel itself that proclaims with indisputable clearness the 
infinite worth of the individual soul. The church must 
therefore demand freedom in the political sphere for the 
human person, for the family, for economic activity, and 
for the various cultural and other associations. 

Other Christians would maintain a precisely opposite 
point of view — namely, that there are no specifically 
Christian grounds and standards for the limitation of the 
state so long as the essential tasks of the church itself are not 
involved. Christian freedom is an inner or eschatological 
freedom for which it is irrelevant how far the state extends 
its claims in the sphere of the social life. The freedom of 
the natural man and his subordination to the commands 
of the state is a matter of political responsibility. How far, 
for example, the state controls and guides economic effort 
and how in its legislation it regulates the position of na- 


Additional Report — Church and State 251 

tional and racial minorities are matters that belong to the 
sphere of political expediency. The church has no author¬ 
ity to demand in the name of the gospel any rights either 
for individuals or for human associations. That is not to 
say that the state has an unlimited competence. The limits 
of its authority, however, have to be decided not from the 
standpoint of the gospel or of the claims of the individual, 
but from that of the responsibility of the state to order and 
protect the common life. Without presuming to interfere 
in the province of political authority the church must make 
it its concern to care for the oppressed and persecuted in 
compassionate love. 

The majority of Christians, however, with whatever dif¬ 
ferences in detail, would regard a third conception as more 
in harmony with the nature of the gospel. They would 
neither agree with the view that the freedom of the church 
is nothing more than a special instance of human freedom 
in general, nor with the view that it is not the business of the 
church to take part after its own fashion in the unending 
struggle for a just equilibrium between political sover¬ 
eignty and human freedom. The church has indeed no in¬ 
terest in the unrestricted expression of all possible forms of 
human activity. It knows the demonic impulses which be¬ 
long to fallen man and which constantly transform freedom 
into license, and consequently when the state fails through 
weakness to protect one against the arbitrary conduct of an¬ 
other it must be a matter of serious concern for the church. 
On the other hand, the church knows that man has been 
created in the image of God and has therefore an indestruc¬ 
tible value, which the state must not impair but rather safe¬ 
guard. The destiny of man and the different social activi¬ 
ties in their proper functioning — such as marriage, the 
family, the nation, and culture—constitute an irremov¬ 
able limit of the state which it cannot with impunity trans- 


The Oxford Conference 


252 

gress. A state which destroys human personality or human 
associations, or subordinates them to its own ends, is there¬ 
fore incompatible with the Christian understanding of life. 
The state ought, on the contrary, to employ its resources to 
insure that human freedom should find growing expression 
in the service of the neighbor and should not be used ac¬ 
cording to the prompting of natural inclination for self- 
assertion and irresponsible behavior. In this task it cannot 
dispense with the cooperation of the church. It is therefore 
in no sense an attempt to meddle with what does not belong 
to it, but a simple act of obedience to God who is righteous 
and loving when the church, so far as circumstances allow 
it, becomes the champion of true human freedom in co¬ 
operation with the state and when necessary in criticism of 
its measures. 


4. PRESENT TASKS AND DUTIES 

(a) Faith as the Motive for Christian Political Activity. 
From this survey of the principles which determine the 
Christian attitude toward the state we turn in conclusion to 
a brief consideration of the present tasks which follow from 
them. 

This first of all, that it is the duty of the church, both 
when acting in its representative capacity and in its relation 
to its individual members, to bring to all that is done and 
planned the dynamic of Christian faith. What we need to 
emphasize most of all at the present time is the fact that the 
primary defect of church and state alike, so far as political 
activity is concerned, is not the lack of a program of action 
but the decline of faith and the lack of selfless love. Since 
God is Lord of the state the one thing that matters is that 
men should have living communion with God and trust 
and obey him unreservedly. The more the Christian com¬ 
munity receives from God strength, confidence, courage, 


Additional Report — Church and State 253 

joy, and liberty, the more will the powers of the eternal 
world radiate from it into the world. Precisely because its 
strength is derived from the supra-political sphere will its 
influence be felt spontaneously and effectively in the politi¬ 
cal sphere. The more clearly the church proclaims that 
Christ has conquered all the principalities and powers of 
this world, and that it is his will to be victorious in the life 
of every man and woman, the more will the church help the 
world. And this in two ways: first of all, it will make it 
easier for each generation to deal with its own political 
problems as they occur; second, the political sphere as a 
whole will be seen in a new and supra-mundane light, and 
when thus reduced to its proper level the atmosphere of 
politics will be sweetened and purified. If politics is to be 
redeemed we need renewed men and women. Hence it is 
the first and central political task of the church to pray the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to create in all its members 
a living faith in himself. The community which comes 
into being through the Word and the sacraments, and 
which consists of missionary groups living in Christian fel¬ 
lowship, will be a community in which — in spite of all the 
sinfulness and imperfection of Christians — the life lived 
in God will become visible to the world. Only when this 
happens can we have Christian politics in any true sense of 
the word. 

(b) Special Duties Incumbent upon the Churches To¬ 
day. From this primary duty certain derived duties follow, 
as for example: 

(1) That the churches should summon their own mem¬ 
bers to repentance, both as individuals and organized 
bodies, for their sins of omission and of commission, and 
should pray for the spirit of consecration which shall make 
of them both in their separate and in their united activities 
agents which God may use for his purpose in the world. 


The Oxford Conference 


254 

(2) That they should bring into existence within the 
local community, the nation and the world such agencies 
of cooperative action as shall make it possible for them to 
discharge effectively such tasks as can be done in common. 

(3) That they should summon their individual members 
in their several callings, not only their clerical but also 
their lay members, men and women, to cooperate with the 
state in such constructive tasks as may be for the good of 
the whole. 

(4) That they should guard for all churches, both as 
groups of witnessing Christians and in their organized ca¬ 
pacity, the opportunity of worship, of witness, of service 
and of education, which is essential to their mission, and 
this not for their own sake only but for the sake of the states. 

In order to discharge these tasks aright the churches need 
to develop further their agencies of cooperative study in 
order that the work begun at Stockholm and Oxford may 
be carried to effective completion. If they are to deal with 
the political situation of the present day in the Christian 
spirit it will not be enough for them merely to follow well 
trodden paths with greater earnestness and fervor. Rather 
will they be challenged to reconsider and re-examine the 
presuppositions, standards and methods which they have 
employed in the past. The chief purpose of this self- 
examination will be to enable them to distinguish more 
clearly than they have hitherto done their own distinctive 
function and to bring to the discharge of that function all 
the help that can come to them through cooperative study 
in the light of modern knowledge. 

(c) The Responsibility of the Church as a Whole for the 
Freedom of Its Members. In addition to the special duties 
affecting its own members and the state with which it has 
more immediate connection each church has a further duty 
as a member of the church universal. This is to follow with 
sympathetic interest the fortunes of those, Christians and 


Additional Report — Church and State 255 

non-Christians, who are victims of cruelty and oppression, 
and to do what it can to secure for them a treatment com¬ 
patible with the dignity of their human personality as chil¬ 
dren of God. 

Wherever any church is being persecuted or its public 
work and influence are being hindered by the power of the 
state, we ought to remember that church with loving inter¬ 
cession and active sympathy. Even in countries where a 
positive attitude toward Christianity is expressed in the 
official recognition of a state church there are tendencies at 
work which limit Christian freedom against which we need 
to be on our guard. Such threats to Christian liberty, 
whether overt or implied, lay upon ecumenical Christianity 
a responsibility of the most serious character. The church 
in its ecumenical capacity cannot remain indifferent while 
in various countries, either with the active cooperation or 
the silent approval of the political authorities, the service 
of the church is made difficult or almost impossible. What 
the churches which still enjoy freedom can do to help any 
sister church thus deprived of liberty of Christian witness, 
they should do. 

It goes without saying that in protesting against perse¬ 
cution on the part of the state the church itself must re¬ 
nounce all forms of persecution, whether by Christians 
against other Christians or by Christians against adherents 
of other religions. Only as in addition to vindicating its 
own freedom it becomes spokesman for the freedom of man 
as man will it be in a position to fulfill its God-given task. 
In this struggle for a larger and fuller life we are not con¬ 
cerned that the church should claim rights for itself or even 
that it should seek to secure its own stability. The one 
thing that matters is that it should be free to proclaim the 
good news of Christ, without let or hindrance, in accord¬ 
ance with the commission given to the church by its Lord 
(Matt. 28:18-20). 









APPENDICES 













APPENDIX A 


ACTION OF THE CONFERENCE IN REGARD TO THE ABSENCE 
OF THE GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH DELEGATION 

The Conference adopted the following message: 

The Brethren in the Christian Churches 
Assembled at Oxford 

to their Brethren in the Evangelical Church in Germany: 

The representatives of Christian churches, assembled at 
Oxford from all parts of the world, mourn the absence of 
their brethren in the German Evangelical Church, with 
whom they have been closely bound both in the prepara¬ 
tions for this conference and in the great tasks which are set 
before the universal church. 

We welcome the fact that an agreement had been reached 
that a common delegation of the German Evangelical 
Church should be sent to Oxford; we therefore miss the 
more the great help which its members would have given in 
the treatment of the fundamental questions of our time. 
But though your delegates are absent, the very circum¬ 
stances of their absence have created a stronger sense of fel¬ 
lowship than before. 

We are greatly moved by the afflictions of many pastors 
and laymen who have stood firm from the first in the Con¬ 
fessional church for the sovereignty of Christ, and for the 
freedom of the church of Christ to preach his gospel. 

We note the gravity of the struggle in which not your 
church alone, but the Roman Catholic Church as well, is 
engaged, against distortion and suppression of Christian 

259 


26 o 


Appendix A 


witness, and for the training of the young in a living faith 
in Jesus Christ as Son of God and King of kings and Lord 
of lords. 

We remember the words of the Scriptures: “ There is one 
body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of 
your calling.” “ If one member suffer all the members 
suffer with it, or one member is honored all the members 
rejoice with it.” So we, your brethren in other churches, 
are one with our suffering brethren in the German Evan¬ 
gelical Church in love and prayer. Your Lord is our Lord, 
your faith our faith, your baptism our baptism. We are 
moved to a more living trust ourselves by your steadfast 
witness to Christ, and we pray that we may be given grace 
in all our churches to bear the same clear witness to the 
Lord. 

We pray God to bless you, and to guide and comfort you 
in your afflictions; and we call upon the churches through¬ 
out the world to make intercession for you with our Father 
in heaven, and to rejoice that once again it has been proved 
that a faith born of sacrifice is counted worthy of sacrifice. 

ACTION BY THE CONFERENCE 

The conference approved of the sending of a delegation 
from Oxford to the German Evangelical Church to deliver 
this message, and to inform that church of the proceedings 
of the conference. 


APPENDIX B 


REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THIRTY-FIVE 
APPOINTED IN PURSUANCE OF RESOLUTIONS 
ADOPTED BY THE AUTHORITATIVE BODIES OF THE 
LIFE AND WORK MOVEMENT AND THE 
FAITH AND ORDER MOVEMENT IN AUGUST 
AND SEPTEMBER, 1936 

Introductory Note 

At their separate sessions held in August and September, 
1936, in successive weeks, the Universal Council for Life 
and Work, and the continuation committee of the World 
Conference on Faith and Order, passed resolutions recom¬ 
mending the appointment of a committee to review the 
work of ecumenical cooperation since the Stockholm and 
Lausanne conferences, and to report to the Oxford and 
Edinburgh conferences regarding the future of the ecu¬ 
menical movement. 

It was further agreed that this committee should be 
appointed by a group representing various ecumenical 
movements and should consist mainly of persons holding 
positions of ecclesiastical responsibility in the different 
churches, but should also contain representatives of the 
viewpoint of laymen, women and youth and some officers 
of the ecumenical movements. 

The group designated for this purpose, after consultation 
with the leaders of the movements and of the churches, 
constituted the committee known as the “ Committee of 
Thirty-Five.” The following were its members: 

261 


262 


Appendix B 


Jonkvrouwe C. M. van Asch van Wijck, President, 
World’s Young Women’s Christian Association 
The Rev. M. E. Aubrey, Moderator, Federal Council of 
Evangelical Free Churches, England and Wales 
Bishop James C. Baker, Methodist Episcopal Church, 
San Francisco 

Dr. Albert W. Beaven, President, Colgate-Rochester 
Seminary, New York 

Pasteur Marc Boegner, President, French Federation of 
Protestant Churches 

Dr. D. Y. Brilioth, Dean of Lund, Sweden 
Professor William Adams Brown, Union Theological 
Seminary, New York 

Professor Walter T. Brown, Victoria University, To¬ 
ronto, Canada 

Dr. Samuel McCrae Cavert, Federal Council of Churches, 
U. S. A. 

The Bishop of Chichester 

The Rev. Dr. Hutchison Cockburn, Dunblane Cathe¬ 
dral, Scotland 

The Most Rev. Archbishop Germanos, Metropolitan of 
Thyateira 

Dr. Fred F. Goodsell, American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, Boston, U. S. A. 

Pasteur Henry-Louis Henriod, General Secretary, Uni¬ 
versal Christian Council for Life and Work 
Canon L. Hodgson, Winchester, General Secretary, Faith 
and Order Movement 
Miss Eleanora Iredale, Life and Work 
Dr. Alphons Koechlin, Vice-President, World Alliance of 
Young Men’s Christian Associations 
Dr. Hanns Lilje, Germany 

The Rev. W. F. Lofthouse, Principal, Handsworth Col¬ 
lege, Birmingham 


Report of the Committee of Thirty-Five 263 

Sir Walter Moberly, Chairman, University Grants Com¬ 
mittee, London 

Dr. John R. Mott, Chairman, International Missionary 
Council 

The Rev. Dr. Lewis S. Mudge, Presbyterian Church of 
the U. S. A. 

Bishop G. Ashton Oldham, Bishop of Albany, U. S. A. 
Dr. J. H. Oldham, International Missionary Council, 
Chairman, Research Commission of the Oxford Con¬ 
ference 

Bishop Edward L. Parsons, Bishop of California 
The Rev. William Paton, Secretary, International Mis¬ 
sionary Council 

Dr. Hans Schonfeld, Director, Research Department of 
the Universal Christian Council 
The Rev. Canon Tissington Tatlow, D.D., Rector of St. 

Edmund the King, Lombard Street, London E. C. 

Dr. Reinold von Thadden, Germany 
Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, General Secretary, World’s 
Student Christian Federation 
The Most Rev. the Archbishop of York 
Professor Stefan Zankov, Sofia 
Professor Dr. F. Zilka, Czechoslovakia 
General-Superintendent Dr. Zoellner, Germany 

All of these except Dr. Hanns Lilje, Dr. Reinold von 
Thadden, Professor Dr. F. Zilka and General-Superintend¬ 
ent Dr. Zoellner, were present when the committee met for 
a three-day session on July 8, 9 and 10, 1937, at Westfield 
College, Hampstead. The Rev. Dr. William P. Merrill was 
also present by invitation for part of the time. 


264 


Appendix B 


REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 

As a result of the deliberations which then took place the 
Committee of Thirty-Five unanimously recommended that 
each of the two world conferences at Oxford and Edin¬ 
burgh adopt the following proposals: 

A WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES 

(1) That the conference regards it as desirable that, 
with a view to facilitating the more effective action of the 
Christian church in the modern world, the movements 
known as “ Life and Work ” and “ Faith and Order ” 
should be more closely related in a body representative of 
the churches and caring for the interests of each movement. 

(2) That the conference approves generally the follow¬ 
ing memorandum: 

The new organization which is proposed shall have no 
power to legislate for the churches or to commit them to 
action without their consent; but if it is to be effective, it 
must deserve and win the respect of the churches in such 
measure that the people of greatest influence in the life of 
the churches may be willing to give time and thought to its 
work. 

Further, the witness which the church in the modern 
world is called to give is such that in certain spheres the 
predominant voice in the utterance of it must be that of 
lay people holding posts of responsibility and influence in 
the secular world. 

For both these reasons, a first class intelligence staff is 
indispensable in order that material for discussion and ac¬ 
tion may be adequately prepared. 

There are certain ecumenical movements such as the 
I. M. C., the World Alliance for International Friendship 
through the Churches, the W. S. C. F., the Y. M. C. A., the 


Report of the Committee of Thirty-Five 265 

Y. W. C. A. and the Central Bureau for Inter-Church Aid 
with which the new body should enter into relationship, 
both in order that the life in them may flow into the 
churches and that those movements may derive stability and 
true perspective from the churches. The actual approach 
to these would need to be determined with regard to the 
basis and function of each. 

We regard it as part of the responsibility of the new body: 
{a) to carry on the work of the two world conferences; 
( b) to facilitate corporate action by the churches; ( c ) to 
promote cooperation in study; ( d ) to promote the growth 
of ecumenical consciousness in the churches; ( e) to con¬ 
sider the establishment of an ecumenical journal; (/) to 
consider the establishment of communication with de¬ 
nominational federations of world-wide scope as well as 
with the movements named in the preceding paragraph; 
(g) to call world conferences on specific subjects as occa¬ 
sion requires. 

(3) That the conference approves the establishment of a 
world council of churches functioning through the follow¬ 
ing bodies: 

(a) A general assembly of representatives of the 
churches (in accordance with a plan to be determined 
later) of approximately 200 members meeting every five 
years. 

(b) A central council of (approximately) 60 members 
which shall be the committee of the general assembly when 
constituted,* meeting annually. Members shall be ap¬ 
pointed for example as follows: (a) Twelve from North 
America appointed through the Federal Council; ( b ) nine 
from Great Britain appointed in such manner as the 

* Note: The constitution for the general assembly shall be worked out 
by the central council in consultation with the churches and the national 
Christian organizations. 


266 


Appendix B 


churches in Great Britain may decide; (c) eighteen from 
the countries on the continent of Europe (to be assigned to 
the different countries); ( d ) nine representing the Ortho¬ 
dox churches; ( e ) six representing the younger churches 
(to be appointed on the advice of the I. M. C.); (/) six 
representing South Africa, Australasia and areas not other¬ 
wise represented. 

One third of the representatives in each case to be laymen 
or women so far as possible. In the event of the number 
of laymen and women elected being less than one third of 
the total, the council shall allot to one or more of the ap¬ 
pointing bodies additional places up to the number of ten 
to be filled by laymen or women. 

(c) A commission for the further study of Faith and 
Order subjects to be appointed at Edinburgh and vacancies 
to be filled by the central council. 

(d) A commission for the further study of Life and 
Work subjects to be appointed by the central council with 
a view to facilitating common Christian action. 

(4) That power be given to the central council to call 
into such relationship with itself as may seem good the other 
ecumenical movements. 

(5) That pending the creation of any new organization, 
each movement shall carry on its own activities through its 
own staff. 

(6) That the conference appoint a constituent commit¬ 
tee of seven members to cooperate with a similar committee 
appointed at Edinburgh (or Oxford) to complete the de¬ 
tails and to bring the scheme into existence. 

N. B. It is suggested that the general assembly should 
approve the scheme for the central council, but should in¬ 
vite the constituents as described in section (3) to appoint 
the members of that council in accordance with the scheme. 


Report of the Committee of Thirty-Five 267 

ACTION BY THE CONFERENCE 

The conference adopted the following resolution in re¬ 
gard to the report of the committee: 

“ That the conference approves the proposal of the Com¬ 
mittee of Thirty-Five in principle, and resolves to appoint 
a constituent committee of seven members to cooperate 
with a similar committee, if appointed by the Faith and 
Order Conference meeting in Edinburgh. 

“ That the committee be instructed to make such modi¬ 
fications in the plan as may seem desirable in the light of 
the discussions at Oxford, or in consultation with the repre¬ 
sentatives of the Faith and Order movement, and to bring 
the scheme into action. 

“That the Business Committee be instructed to nom¬ 
inate the members of the constituent committee and report 
to the conference.” 

The Business Committee subsequently reported that the 
following had been nominated as members of the constit¬ 
uent committee, an alternative being nominated in each 
instance in case the member nominated should be unable 
to serve. The name of the alternative is given in brackets: 
M. Marc Boegner [Dr. A. Koechlin], Professor William 
Adams Brown [Dr. S. M. Cavert], the Bishop of Chichester 
[Sir Walter Moberly], Archbishop Germanos [the Bishop 
of Novi Sad], Bishop Mahrarens [Archbishop Eidem], Dr. 
John R. Mott [Mr. Charles P. Taft], Dr. J. H. Oldham [the 
Rev. M. E. Aubrey, C. H.]. 


APPENDIX C 


PROGRAM OF THE CONFERENCE 

Monday, July 12 
5:00 P.M. 

Business meeting in the Sheldonian Theater 
8:15 P.M. 

Opening meeting of the Conference in the Sheldonian 
Theater 

Address of Welcome — Dr. A. D. Lindsay, Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor of the University of Oxford. Reply by the 
President of the Conference 
Service of Worship — The Rev. Professor John Bail- 
lie, New College, Edinburgh, and the Rev. M. E. 
Aubrey, Moderator of the Federal Council of Evan¬ 
gelical Free Churches 

Presidential Address — The Most Rev. the Lord Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury 
Tuesday, July 13 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church—Professor 
H. H. Farmer 
10:15-12:45 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

“From Stockholm to Oxford” — Professor A. 
Runestam 

“ The Meaning and Possibilities of the Oxford Con¬ 
ference ” — Dr. J. H. Oldham 
“ The Ecumenical Work of Preparation ” — Dr. 
Hans Schonfeld 


268 


Program of the Conference 269 

“ The American Approach to the Conference ” — 
Professor H. P. Van Dusen 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

“ The Church Faces a Secular Culture.” Addresses 
by Professor Reinhold Niebuhr and Dr. T. Z. 
Koo 

6:45-7: 10 PM - 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — The Rev. 
Canon F. A. Cockin 
8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Meetings of Sections 
Wednesday, July 14 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — M. le pas- 
teur Georges Lauga 
10:15-12:45 
Meetings of Sections 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

“ The Significance and Function of the Church.” 
Addresses by Professor S. Zankov, the Rev. W. 
Paton and Professor Justin Wroe Nixon 
6:45-7: 10 p.m. 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — Dr. A. 
Koechlin 
8:30-10:00 p.m. 

Meetings of Sections 
Thursday, July 15 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — The Rev. 
D. Horst 

10:15-12:45 

Meetings of Sections 


Appendix C 


5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

“ The Basis of the Christian Ethic.” Addresses by 
Professor Emil Brunner and the Dean of St. 
Paul’s 
6:45-7:10 P.M. 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — The Rev. E. 
Shillito 

8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Meetings of Sections and Drafting Committees 
Friday, July 16 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — The Rev. 
A. C. Craig 
10:15-12:45 

Meetings of Sections 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

“ The Ecumenical Nature of the Church and its 
Responsibility toward the World.” Addresses 
by Professor Yasuda, Mr. T. S. Eliot, M. le pas- 
teur Pierre Maury and Dr. S. M. Cavert 
6:45-7:10 P.M. 

Orthodox Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — 
Archbishop Germanos 
8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Meetings of Sections and Drafting Committees 
Saturday, July 17 

No general meetings 
Sunday, July 18 

7:15 and 8:00 a.m. 

Celebration of Holy Communion in St. Mary’s Church 
according to the Anglican rite 


Program of the Conference 


271 


7:30 A.M. 

Celebration of Holy Liturgy in Hertford College 
Chapel 
11:00 A.M. 

Service of Holy Communion after the manner of the 
Churches of the Reformed Tradition in Mansfield 
College Chapel 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Meeting for Prayer and Intercession in St. Mary’s 
Church — Dr. J. H. Oldham and the Chairmen of 
the Conference Sections 
Monday, July 19 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — Dr. T. Z. 
Koo 

10:15-12:45 
Meetings of Sections 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Adoption of Resolution on German Evangelical 
Church 

Presentation of Report of the Committee of Thirty- 
Five by the Archbishop of York 
6:45-7: 10 P.M. 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — M. le pasteur 
d’Espine 
8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Meetings of Sections 
Tuesday, July 20 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — Bishop 
Baker 

10:15-12:45 

Meetings of Sections 


Appendix C 


5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Presentation and discussion of Report on Church, 
Community and State in Relation to the Eco¬ 
nomic Order 
6:45-7:10 P.M. 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — The Rev. 
Canon F. A. Cockin 
8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Continued discussion of 'the Report on the Eco¬ 
nomic Order 
Wednesday, July 21 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — The Rev. 
Canon C. E. Raven 
10:15-12:45 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Presentation and discussion of the Report on 
Church and Community 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Continued discussion of the Report on Church and 
Community 
6:45-7: 10 P M - 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — Dr. Douglas 
Horton 

8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Meetings of Sections and Drafting Committees 
Thursday, July 22 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — Professor 
Emil Brunner 


Program of the Conference 


273 


10:15-12:45 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 
Presentation and discussion of the Report on Church 
and State 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Continued discussion of the Report on Church and 
State 

6:45-7:10 P.M. 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — The Bishop 
of Novi Sad 
8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Consideration of the Report of the Committee of 
Thirty-Five 
Friday, July 23 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — The Very 
Rev. Richard Roberts 

10:15-12:45 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Presentation of the Report on the Universal Church 
and the World of Nations 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Continued discussion of the Report on the Univer¬ 
sal Church and the World of Nations 
6:45-7:10 P.M. 

Evening Prayers in St. Mary’s Church — The Bishop 
of Dornakal 
8:30-10:00 P.M. 

Meetings of Sections and of Drafting Committees of 
the Sections 


Appendix C 


274 

Saturday, July 24 
9:30-10:00 A.M. 

Service of Worship in St. Mary’s Church — The Ven. 
Leslie Hunter 
10:15-12:45 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Presentation and discussion of the Report on 
Church, Community and State in Relation to 
Education 
3:00 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 
General Business 
5:00-6:30 P.M. 

Plenary Session in the Town Hall 

Consideration of a “ Message to the Christian 
Churches ” 

8:30 P.M. 

Service of Preparation for Holy Communion in St. 
Mary’s Church — The Rev. Canon F. A. Cockin 
Sunday, July 25 
8:00 A.M. 

Service of Holy Communion according to the Anglican 
rite in St. Mary’s and St. Aldate’s 
8:30 A.M. 

Celebration of Orthodox Liturgy in Hertford College 
Chapel 

3:00-4:30 P.M. 

Closing Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication in St. 
Mary’s Church led by the Most Rev. the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Archbishop Ger- 
manos, the Most Rev. Archbishop Eidem, the Rt. 
Rev. Dr. Fuglsang-Damgaard, M. le pasteur Marc 
Boegner, Dr. John R. Mott, M. le pasteur d’Espine 
and the Rev. Canon F. A. Cockin 


APPENDIX D 


OFFICERS OF THE CONFERENCE 
Conference Presidents 

The Most Rev. Dr. Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury 
The Most Rev. Dr. Germanos, Archbishop of Thyateira 
The Most Rev. Dr. Erling Eidem, Archbishop of Upsala, 
Sweden 

The Rt. Rev. V. S. Azariah, Bishop of Dornakal, S. India 
The Rev. Professor W. Adams Brown, D.D., Union Theo¬ 
logical Seminary, New York 

M. le pasteur Marc Boegner, President of the Protestant 
Federation of France 

Chairmen and Secretaries of Sections 
Church and Community 

Chairman — Sir Walter Moberly, Chairman of the Uni¬ 
versity Grants Committee, Great Britain 
Secretary — Dr. Hendrik Kraemer, Holland 
Church and State 

Chairman — Professor Max Huber, Zurich 
Secretary — The Rev. Nils Ehrenstrom, Sweden 
Church, Community and State in Relation to the Economic 
Order 

Chairman — Mr. J. P. R. Maud, Dean of University Col¬ 
lege, Oxford 

Secretary — Professor John Bennett, Auburn, U. S. A. 
Church, Community and State in Relation to Education 
Chairman — The Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin, D.D., Presi¬ 
dent of Union Theological Seminary, New York 
275 


Appendix D 


276 

Secretary — The Rev. J. W. C. Dougall 
The Universal Church and the World of Nations 

Chairman — The Rev. John A. Mackay, D.D., President 
of Princeton Theological Seminary 
Secretary — The Rev. William Paton 
Sub-Section on the Church and War 

Chairman — The Rev. W. A. Visser’t Hooft, General 
Secretary of the World’s Student Christian Federation 


Business Committee 


Chairman — Dr. John R. Mott 
Secretary — M. le pasteur H. L. Henriod 


Bishop Azariah 
M. le pasteur Marc Boegner 
Dr. William Adams Brown 
Dr. S. M. Cavert 
The Bishop of Chichester 
Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin 
Mr. Nils Ehrenstrom 
Archbishop Eidem 
Archbishop Germanos 
M. Charles Guillon 


Professor Max Huber 
Dr. Alphons Koechlin 
Dr. Henry Smith Leiper 
Dr. John A. Mackay 
Mr. J. P. R. Maud 
Sir Walter Moberly 
Dr. J. H. Oldham 
Dr. H. Schonfeld 
Dr. H. P. Van Dusen 
Dr. W. A. Visser’t Hooft 


Dr. Francis Wei 


APPENDIX E 


CHURCHES REPRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE 

i. North America 

The National Baptist Convention [1] * 

The Northern Baptist Convention [8] 

The Southern Baptist Convention [2] 

The Church of the Brethren [ 1 ] 

Congregational Christian Churches [7] 

Disciples of Christ [8] 

Evangelical Church [ 1 ] 

Evangelical and Reformed Church [5] 

The Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North 
America [2] 

Five Year’s Meeting of the Society of Friends [1] 
Methodist Episcopal Church [8] 

Methodist Episcopal Church, African [ 1 ] 

Methodist Episcopal Church, Colored [1] 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South [7] 

Methodist Protestant Church [2] 

Presbyterian Church [8] 

Southern Presbyterian Church [4] 

Presbyterian United Church of North America [1] 
Protestant Episcopal Church [7] 

Reformed Church in America [ 1 ] 

United Brethren in Christ [1] 

Baptist Conference of Ontario and Quebec [ 1 ] 

Church of England in Canada [3] 

United Church of Canada [4] 

* The numbers in brackets indicate the number of delegates each 
church sent to the conference. 


277 


278 Appendix E 

2. Great Britain and Ireland 
Baptist Union [2] 

Baptist Church in Wales [ 1 ] 

Church of England [ 18] 

Church of Ireland [ 1 ] 

Church of Scotland [8] 

Church of Wales [1] 

Congregational Union [3] 

Congregational Church in Wales [1] 

Episcopal Church of Scotland [1] 

Methodist Church [5] 

Presbyterian Church of England [2] 

Presbyterian Church of Ireland [1] 

Presbyterian Church of Wales [2] 

Salvation Army [1] 

Society of Friends [1] 

General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christians [1] 
United Free Church of Scotland [2] 

3. Continent of Europe 
Austria 

Evangelical Church of the Augsburg and Helvetic 
Confession [1] 

Belgium 

Union of Protestant Evangelical Churches [1] 
Czechoslovakia 

Czechoslovakian Church [2] 

Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession [1] 
Evangelical Church of Bohemian Brethren [ 1 ] 
German Evangelical Church in Bohemia, Moravia and 
Silesia [1] 

Denmark 

Evangelical Lutheran Church [3] 

Methodist Church [1] 


Churches Represented at the Conference 279 
Estonia 

Evangelical Lutheran Church [1] 

Finland 

Evangelical Lutheran Church [2] 

France 

Protestant Federation of France [5] 

Germany 

Federation of Protestant Free Churches in Ger¬ 
many [2] 

Greece 

Protestant Evangelical Church [1] 

Holland 

Algemeene Doopsgezinde Societeit [1] 

Evangelical Lutheran Church [1] 

Reformed Church [3] 

Remonstrantsche Broederschap [1] 

Hungary 

Evangelical Christian Church of the Augsburg Con¬ 
fession [1] 

Reformed Church [1] 

Italy 

Waldensian Church [1] 

Latvia 

Evangelical Lutheran Church [2] 

Lithuania 

Evangelical Lutheran Church [1] 

Reformed Church [1] 

Norway 

Norwegian Church [4] 

Poland 

Evangelical Lutheran Church [1] 

Evangelical Church [1] 

Evangelical Reformed Church [1] 


28o 


Appendix E 


Rumania 

Protestant Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Con¬ 
fession [1] 

Protestant Reformed Church of Transylvania [1] 
Spain 

Evangelical Church in Spain [1] 

Sweden 

Church of Sweden [5] 

Swedish Free Churches [3] 

Switzerland 

Protestant Church Federation [5] 

Yugoslavia 

Protestant German Church of the Augsburg Confes¬ 
sion [2] 

Old Catholic Church [ 1 ] 

4. Orthodox Church 

Ecumenical Patriarchate [2] 

Patriarchate of Alexandria [2] 

Patriarchate of Antioch [1] 

Patriarchate of Jerusalem [not represented directly] 
Church of Cyprus [not represented directly] 

Greek Orthodox Church [4] 

Orthodox Church in Bulgaria [2] 

Orthodox Church in Poland [2] 

Orthodox Church in Rumania [4] 

Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia [1] 

Russian Church in Exile: 

(a) Russian Orthodox Bishop’s Council, Bel- 
grade [1] 

(b) Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Eu- 
rope [4] 

Coptic Orthodox Church [1] 

Armenian Church [1] 

Assyrian Church [1] 


Churches Represented at the Conference 281 

. Other Areas 
Australia 

Church of England [2] 

Methodist Church [2] 

Presbyterian Church [1] 

China 

Baptist Churches [1] 

Church of Christ [3] 

Church of England [1] 

North China Congregational Church [2] 

Dutch East Indies 

Protestant Church of the Dutch East Indies [2] 
India 

Church of India, Burma and Ceylon [3] 

South India United Church [2] 

Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church [1] 

United Church of Northern India [1] 

Japan 

Congregational Union of Japan [1] 

Church of Christ [1] 

Church of the United Brethren in Christ [1] 
Methodist Church [2] 

Korea 

Presbyterian Church of Korea [1] 

Mexico 

Protestant Episcopal Church [ 1 ] 

New Zealand 

Baptist Church [1] 

Church of England [1] 

Presbyterian Church [1] 

Philippine Islands 

National Christian Council [1] 

United Evangelical Church [1] 


282 


Appendix E 


South Africa 

Methodist Church [2] 

Presbyterian Church [ 1 ] 

South America 

The Cooperation Committee of the Rio de la Plata [ 1 ] 
Evangelical Federation of Brazil [1] 

Methodist Church of Brazil [1] 


APPENDIX F 


DELEGATES ACCORDING TO SECTIONS 
Section I: Church and Community 


Chairman — Sir Walter Moberly 
Secretary — Professor Dr. Hendrik Kraemer 


1. North American Delegates 


Dr. J. A. Alexander, Crafton 
Prof. E. E. Aubrey, Chicago 
Rev. George Emerson Barnes, Phila¬ 
delphia 

Mrs. Fred S. Bennett, Englewood 
Dr. John C. Broughall, Ontario 
Dr. John C. Broomfield, Fairmont 
Dr. William Horace Day, Bridgeport 
Dr. H. Paul Douglass, Montclair 
Dr. Harley H. Gill, San Francisco 
Dr. Ernest G. Guthrie, Chicago 
Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, St. Louis 
Dr. E. G. Homrighausen, Indian¬ 
apolis 

2 . British 

Prof. Ernest Barker, Cambridge 
Rev. Dr. James Hutchison Cockburn, 
Pertshire 

Prof. Herbert H. Farmer, Cambridge 
James Gray, Glasgow 
Rev. William D. L. Greer, London 
Rev. Richard Jones, Llandinam 
Prof. Atkinson Lee, Manchester 


Dr. Edgar DeWitt Jones, Detroit 
Dr. Willis J. King, Atlanta 
Miss Ethel Law, Toronto 
Bishop John M. Moore, Dallas 
Dr. Justin Wroe Nixon, Rochester 
Dr. Stuart Oglesby, Atlanta 
Dr. Robert W. Searle, New York City 
Bishop W. Bertrand Stevens, Los 
Angeles 

Dr. Henry P. Van Dusen, New York 
City 

Bishop Ira D. Warner, Portland 
Dr. R. J. Wilson, Toronto 
Dr. R. Norris Wilson, Chicago 

Delegates 

Rev. Robert Mackintosh, Stirling 
The Very Rev. W. R. Matthews, Dean 
of St. Paul’s 

Sir Walter Moberly, London 
Rev. Principal E. J. Price, Bradford 
Rev. Prof. William Richard Williams, 
Tanybryn 


3. Continental Delegates 


Rev. Paul Conord, France 
Rev. H. Roux, France 
Prof. H. Kraemer, Holland 


Rev. F. Dijkema, Holland 
Prof. Dr. Keussen, Germany 
Prediger Paul Schmidt, Germany 


283 


Appendix F 


284 

Prof. E. E. Thurneysen, Switzerland 
Rev. Dr. Alphons Koechlin, Switzer¬ 
land 

Rev. Ulrich Liitscher, Switzerland 
Prof. Dr. J. Norregaard, Denmark 
Dozent Dr. N. H. S0e, Denmark 
Principal N. J. Nordstrom, Sweden 

4. Orthodox 

Prof. Dr. Stefan Zankov, Bulgaria 
Prof. Iulius Soriban, Rumania 
Prof. P. Bratsiotis, Greece 
Most Rev. Metropolit Dionysios, Po¬ 
land (2nd week only) 


Prof. Dr. Manfred Bjorkquist, Sweden 
Prof. Dr. Nygren, Lund, Sweden 
Bishop P. H. Poelchau, Latvia 
Provost Hans Kubu, Estonia 
Prof. V. Gaigalaitis, Lithuania 
Rev. Dr. Konrad Moeckel, Rumania 
Rev. D. Gerhard May, Yugoslavia 

Delegates 

Rt. Rev. Archimandrit M. Constan- 
tinidis, Ecumenical Patriarchate 
Rt. Rev. Bishop Seraphim, Vienna, 
Russian Orth. Bishop’s Council 


5. Other Areas 


Frank W. Price, China 
Rev. Chukichi Yasuda, Japan 
Dr. C. L. van Doom, Dutch East 
Indies 

Dr. Charles Duguid, Australia 


Rev. L. A. North, New Zealand 
Rev. A. C. Watson, New Zealand 
Rev. J. Bruce Gardiner, South Africa 
Rev. E. K. Higdon, Philippine Islands 
S. Devanesan, India 


Section II: Church and State 


Chairman — Professor Max Huber 
Secretary — Rev. Nils Ehrenstrom 

1. North American Delegates 


Dr. John M. Alexander, Alabama 
Dr. Robert Ashworth, New York 
Dr. Jesse M. Bader, New York 
Dr. William Adams Brown, New 
York 

Dr. Frederick W. Burnham, Rich¬ 
mond 

Dr. J. Harry Cotton, Columbus 
Dr. Thomas W. Currie, Kansas City 
Dr. Ralph E. Diffendorfer, New York 
City 

Dr. Frederick S. Fleming, New York 
City 


Miss Dorothy Fosdick, New York 
Prof. J. W. Garner, Urbana 
Dr. Fred Field Goodsell, Boston 
Hon. Alanson B. Houghton, Wash¬ 
ington 

Dr. Robert Laird, Toronto 
Dr. William B. Lipphard, New York 
Dr. John H. MacCracken, New York 
Dr. Lewis S. Mudge, Philadelphia 
Dr. Clifford Ansgar Nelson, St. Paul 
Archbishop Derwyn T. Owen, To¬ 
ronto 

Dr. Samuel D. Press, Missouri 


Delegates According to Sections 285 


Dr. John P. Sala, Buffalo 
Dr. John R. Sampey, Louisville 
Hon. Francis B. Sayre, Washington 
Willard E. Shelton, St. Louis 


Dr. J. Ross Stevenson, Princeton 
Dr. James Henry Straughn, Baltimore 
Miss Ruth Woodsmall, Geneva 
Dr. M. R. Zigler, Elgin 


2. British Delegates 


Rev. M. E. Aubrey, London 
Percy W. Bartlett, London 
Mrs. Margrieta Beer, London 
Rev. C. M. Chavasse, Oxford 
Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Chiches¬ 
ter 

Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Derby 
Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Down 
Rev. Reginald E. Fenn, Welwyn Gar¬ 
den City 


John Rutherford Hill, Edinburgh 
Rev. A. S. Kydd, Edinburgh 
Dr. A. D. Lindsay, Oxford 
Rev. W. F. Lofthouse, Birmingham 
Dr. Nathaniel Micklem, Oxford 
Rev. John Maclean, Dundee 
Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of South 
wark, London 

Rev. President J. S. Whale, Cam 
bridge 


3. Continei 

Rev. Charles Guillon, France 
Rev. Marc Boegner, France 
Doyen H. Strohl, France 
Prof. M. Piacentini, Italy 
Rev. Theodor Fliedner, Spain 
Dr. W. F. van Gunsteren, Holland 
Prof. P. Scholten, Holland 
Prof. Franz Fischer, Austria 
Prof. Emil Brunner, Switzerland 
Marc Chenevi£re, Switzerland 
Prof. Max Huber, Switzerland 
Prof. Pierre Jaccard, Switzerland 
Prof. Schindler, Switzerland 
Rt. Rev. Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard, 
Denmark 

Prof. E. Geismar, Denmark 
Prof. Dean Ingve Brilioth, Sweden 

4. Orthodox 

Most Rev. Archbishop Stephan, Bul¬ 
garia 

Prof. Serban Ionescu, Rumania 
Prof. Alivisatos, Greece 


1 Delegates 

Rev. E. G. Henriksson, Sweden 
Prof. Herlitz, Sweden 
Most Rev. Archbishop D. Erling 
Eidem, Sweden 
Bishop Ysander, Sweden 
Prof. Lyder Brun, Norway 
Bishop Otto Melle, Germany 
Bishop Popp, Yugoslavia 
Rt. Rev. Bishop D. Julius Bursche, 
Poland 

Richard D. Hildt, Poland 
Dr. Paavo Wirkkunen, Finland 
Prof. Dr. Bela Vasady, Hungary 
Oberkirchenrat Dr. Fr. Giesecke, 
Czechoslovakia 

Rev. Adolf Jesch, Czechoslovakia 


Delegates 

Prof. B. Vyscheslavzeff, Russian 
(Paris) 

Archbishop A. Bashir, Patriarchate 
of Antioch 


286 


Appendix F 


5. Other Areas 

Prof. K. H. Bailey, Australia Rev. William Eveleigh, South Africa 

Rt. Rev. V. S. Azariah, India Most Rev. Patriarch Eshai Shimun, 

President Francis Wei, China Assyrian Church 

Miss Taka Kato, Japan 
Rev. Carlos T. Gattinoni, South 
America 

Section III: The Church and the Economic Order 


Chairman — Mr. J. P. R. Maud 
Secretary — Professor John Bennett 

1. North American Delegates 


Rev. James C. Baker, San Francisco 
President Albert W. Beaven, Roches¬ 
ter 

Rev. M. A. Boggs, Hot Springs 
Rev. Dan B. Brummitt, Kansas City 
Bishop James Cannon, Jr., Washing¬ 
ton 

Rev. John Rood Cunningham, Win¬ 
ston-Salem 

Rev. H. E. Earhart, Detroit 
Rev. Elmer A. Fridell, Seattle 
Rev. Harlan M. Frost, Toledo 
Rev. L. W. Goebel, Chicago 
Rev. J. H. Jackson, Philadelphia 
Rev. W. W. Judd, Toronto 
Bishop Paul B. Kern, Durham 
Rev. John Howland Lathrop, Brook¬ 
lyn, N. Y. 

2. British 

Alderman A. E. Ager, Birmingham 
Prof. John Baillie, Edinburgh 
Edwin Barker, London 
Thomas S. R. Boase, Oxford 
Rev. Archibald Chisholm, Glasgow 
Prof. R. Corkey, Belfast 
John Craig, Wishaw 
Commissioner Alfred G. Cunning¬ 
ham, London 


Dean Benjamin E. Mays, Washington 
Rev. George L. Morelock, Nashville 
Dr. Charles Clayton Morrison, Chi¬ 
cago 

Prof. Reinhold Niebuhr, New York 
Rev. Justin Wroe Nixon, Rochester 
Rev. Albert W. Palmer, Chicago 
Rev. Harold C. Phillips, Cleveland 
Rev. Reverdy C. Ransom, Wilber- 
force 

Miss Anna V. Rice, New York 
Mrs. Harper Sibley, Rochester 
Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati 
Prof. Paul Tillich, New York 
Rev. Ernest F. Tittle, Evanston 
Rev. Charles J. Turck, Philadelphia 
James M. Speers, New York 
Dr. W. G. Wilson, Victoria, Canada 

Delegates 

Rev. V. A. Demant, Richmond 
Thomas S. Eliot, London 
Miss B. E. Gwyer, Oxford 
A. Healey, Birmingham 
Ven. Archdeacon L. S. Hunter, New¬ 
castle 

Miss Eleanora Iredale, London 

J. P. R. Maud, Oxford 

Prof. John Macmurray, London 


Delegates According to Sections 


287 

The Ven. Archdeacon of Monmouth W. Grenville Symons, Newcastle 
H. W. Smith Prof. R. H. Tawney, London 

Rev. Malcolm Spencer Rev. E. C. Urwin, London 

Sir Josiah Stamp, Shortlands 


3. Continental Delegates 


Rev. Elie Gounelle, France 
Prof. Andr6 Philip, France 
M. G. Rufenacht, France 
Dr. W. F. van Gunsteren, Holland 
Prof. W. Hug, Switzerland 
Direktor J. Toftegaard, Denmark 
Rev. E. Marstrand, Denmark 


Missionsdirektor A. Anderson, Swe 
den 

The Rev. Julen, Sweden 
Dozent Dr. Frank M. Hnik, Czecho¬ 
slovakia 

Deliyannides Stavros, Greece 


4. Orthodox Delegates 

Prof. C. Iordachescu, Rumania Prof. S. Boulgakoff, Russian (Paris) 


5. Other Areas 


Dr. Gordon Pateat, China 

Y. T. Wu, China 

Rev. J. J. Baninga, India 

Rev. R. D. Whitehorn, India 

Rev. Dr. P. A. Micklem, Australia 

Rev. G. Calvert Barber, Australia 


Rev. Arthur J. A. Fraser, Australia 

Tadasu Yoshimoto, Japan 

Epigmenio Valasco, Mexico 

Rev. E. Moura, Brazil 

Frank C. Atherton, Philippine Islands 


Section IV: The Church and Education 


Chairman — President Henry Sloane Coffin 
Secretary — Rev. J. W. C. Dougall 

1. North American Delegates 


Rev. Hampton Adams, Frankfort 
Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, Rock Island 
Rev. Kenneth B. Bowen, Covington 
Dr. Walter T. Brown, Toronto 
Dr. Jesse Dee Franks, Columbus 
Dr. J. Arthur Hamlett, Kansas City 
Prof. Georgia Harkness, Mt. Holyoke 
College 

Prof. Nevin C. Hamer, Lancaster 


Dr. R. A. Hiltz, Toronto 
Dr. F. Ernest Johnson, New York 
Miss Eliza H. Kendrick, Wellesley 
Dr. J. Quinter Miller, Hartford 
Norman B. Nash, Cambridge 
Dr. William W. Peele, Greensboro 
Dr. Karl K. Quimby, Ridgewood 
Dean Joseph C. Todd, Bloomington 
Dr. John H. Warnshuis, Staten Island 


288 


Appendix F 


2. British Delegates 


Rev. M. U. Baird, Aberdeen 
The Very Rev. Dean of Exeter 
Canon F. A. Cockin, Oxford 
T. Christie Innes, Scotland 
Rev. Prof. Joseph Jones, Brecon 
Miss A. L. Lawrence, Durham 


Charles Richard Morris, Oxford 
Dr. A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Shef 
field 

Rev. Alan Richardson, Morpeth 
Miss Ruth Rouse, London 


3. Continental Delegates 


Prof. Henri Clavier, France 

Miss D. de Dietrich, France 

Prof. Dr. Kohnstamm, Holland 

Miss van Asch van Wijck, Holland 

Dr. R. Miedema, Holland 

Prof. Slotemaker de Bruine, Holland 

Dr. Erwin Schneider, Austria 


Rev. Ernest Meyer, Switzerland 
Prof. Grisebach, Switzerland 
Principal Haakon Wergeland, Nor¬ 
way 

Dr. Wilhelm Carlgren, Sweden 
Rt. Rev. Bishop Max von Bonsdorff, 
Finland 


4. Orthodox Delegates 


Prof. V. V. Zenkovsky, Russian 
(Paris) 

Prof. N. Alexiev, Bulgaria 
Archpriest John Janson, Latvia 


The Most Rev. Nicolas, Metropolitan 
of Axum, Patriarchate of Alexan¬ 
dria 

Prof. Vintila Popescu, Rumania 


5. Other Areas 


Rev. Geoffrey Allen, China 
Mrs. Chik Tai Wei-king, China 
Principal Y. Ichimura, Japan 
Rev. Susumu Nishida, Japan 
Prof. L. G. Paik, Korea 


Rev. C. J. Lucas, India 
Rt. Rev. West-Watson, New Zealand 
Mrs. W. van Doorn-Snyders, Dutch 
East Indies 

Solomon Mdala, South Africa 


Section V: The Universal Church and the World of Nations 

Chairman — President John A. Mackay 
Secretary — Rev. William Paton 

Subsection: The Christian Attitude toward War 

Chairman — Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft 

1. North American Delegates 

Dr. Henry A. Atkinson, New York Dr. Samuel McCrae Cavert, New York 
Rev. Louis S. Barton, Muskogee Rev. Allan Knight Chalmers, New 

York 


Delegates According to Sections 


289 


Miss Elizabeth L. Chamberlin, 
Toledo 

Edward W. Cross, Richmond Hill 
Miss Mary Dingman, Geneva 
Mrs. Olive Dutcher Doggett, Spring- 
field 

Dr. John Foster Dulles, New York 
Dr. James H. Franklin, Chester 
Dr. Theodore A. Greene, New Britain 
Dr. Robert M. Hopkins, New York 
Dr. Walter M. Horton, Oberlin 
Rev. Theodore C. Hume, Chicago 
Dean James M. James, Evanston 
Dr. Henry Smith Leiper, New York 
President John A. Mackay, Princeton 


Rev. H. L. MacNeill, Hamilton 
Dr. William P. Merrill, New York 
Dr. Roger T. Nooe, Nashville 
Bishop G. Ashton Oldham, New York 
Mrs. Henry Hill Pierce, New York 
President George W. Richards, Lan¬ 
caster 

Rev. Dr. Richard Roberts, Toronto 
Prof. Elbert Russell, Durham 
Dr. George Stewart, Stamford 
Rev. Tracy Strong, Geneva 
Rev. Walter W. Van Kirk, New York 
Bishop Raymond J. Wade, Evanston 
and Stockholm 

Dr. A. L. Warnshuis, New York 


2 . British 

Rev. John C. Ballantyne, London 
Rev. G. L. Brander, London 
The Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of 
Brechin, Scotland 

The Rt. Hon. Viscount Cecil of Chel- 
wood, London 

Rt. Hon. Lord Dickinson, London 
Rev. W. H. Drummond, Oxford 
Rev. R. T. Evans, Swansea 
Rev. Dr. R. Newton Flew, Cambridge 
G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, Newbury 
Rev. P. T. R. Kirk, London 
Rev. Prof. Daniel Lamont, Edin¬ 
burgh 


Delegates 

The Most Hon. Marquis of Lothian, 
London 

Basil Mathews, London 
Rev. William Paton, London 
The Hon. Lord Polwarth, Humbie 
Rev. Prof. C. E. Raven, Ely 
Rev. P. T. Thompson, Beckenham 
J. V. Wilson, League of Nations, 
Geneva 

The Most Rev. the Lord Archbishop 
of York 

Sir Alfred Zimmem, Oxford 


3. Continental Delegates 


Past. J. Jezequel, France 
Past. Georges Lauga, France 
Past. D. Maury, France 
Past. E. Pichal, Belgium 
Prof. Ernesto Comba, Italy 
Dr. W. A. Visser’t Hooft, Holland 
Dr. J. C. Wissing, Holland 
Dr. C. W. Th. Baron van Boetzelaer 
van Dubbeldam, Holland 
Rev. H. d’Espine, Switzerland 
Prof. Dr. Adolf Keller, Switzerland 
Rev. Henry L. Henriod, Switzerland 
Prof. D. O. Piper, Germany 


Prof. Dr. F. Siegmund-Schultze, Ger¬ 
many 

Rev. Sten Bugge, Norway 

Rev. H. K. Leisegang, Norway 

Prof. A. Runestam, Sweden 

Mrs. Anna Soederblom, Sweden 

The Rev. Werner, Sweden 

Rev. H. Saermark, Denmark 

Rt. Rev. Bishop D. Dr. H. B. 

Rahamagi, Estonia 
Most Rev. Archbishop T. Grunberg, 
Latvia 

Dr. Paul Jakubenas, Lithuania 


Appendix F 


290 

Prof. D. Dr. Karl Prohle, Hungary Rt. Rev. Bishop Dr. Samuel Osusky, 
Rev. D. Horst, Poland Czechoslovakia 

Miss J. Matouskova, Czechoslovakia 

4. Orthodox Delegates 

Prof. Dr. Vasile D. Ispir, Rumania Most Rev. Archbishop Germanos, 
The Rt. Rev. Bishop of Novi Sad, Ecumenical Patriarchate 
Yugoslavia Prof. N. Alexeiev, Russian (Paris) 

Prof. M. Zyzyken, Poland 


5. Other Areas 


Rev. Timothy Tingfang Lew, China 
Rev. Andrew Thomson, China 
Rt. Rev. George N. L. Hall, Bishop 
of Chota Nagpur, India 


Dr. Charles W. Hinton, Mexico 
Rev. Dr. George Wright, Philippine 
Islands 
























































































































































































































































































( 


























































































































































0 




























Deacidified using the Bookkeeper pro 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: August 2005 

PreservationTechnoloc 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERV/ 

111 Thomson Park Dnve 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 

























































































































































































































































































